Three Strikes
by Timelong
Summary: The duo of Wilde and Hopps were tasked to track down a pair of suspicious characters due to, for once, their small size being an asset. So when they do find these characters, a pair of pilots, Judy's luck of turning even simple cases into complex conspiracies turns up again as Zootopia finds itself getting involved with a war that until now, was just another thing on the news.
1. Chapter 1

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Again the update took longer than expected, but as before, the new chapter is far longer than any before. So at the cost of the long wait, enjoy the 16k word chapter.

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A/N: This story is a _very loose _crossoverof Zootopia and Ace Combat 7, with emphasis on Zootopia, so this is the section where the story will be posted. The reason for the story's existance is incredibly simple: Just take a look at the personal emblem of the player character "Trigger" that shows up on the tail of all aircraft he flies. It got the ideas forming around, and really started when combined with this realization: By only taking a few characters and plot points from AC7 (hence the very loose part of the crossover), a what is hoped to be a compelling story can be formed.

As far as background information that can help with understanding the backstory: Zootopia is unchanged from the movie, and story takes place after the movie. On a larger scale, Zootopia is a city belonging to the nation of the United States of Animalia. To continue the theme with Incredibly Lame Animal Puns, the Ace Combat nations of Ocea and Erusea, renamed to Ocelotia and Urusia (the Urus is an extinct cattle variant that lead to the modern domesticated cow) exist as neighboring nations to Animalia, and are currently at war with each other. The United States of Animalia, and by natural extension, Zootopia, remain neutral in the conflict.

Since the story is set after the movie, movie spoilers are ignored and assumed to be known (if they will be relevant to the story). The only major spoiler for Ace Combat 7 will be the relationship between "Trigger" and the character that will be renamed to ex-President Hareling (how convenient of a pun). Considering the target audience for the story, this spoiler point falls into one of two categories: You already know, or you won't care about the plot point being spoiled. As it is, you have been warned.

The last major point to be made is that the story is being written in a very loose "because why not" approach. As of the publishing of the first chapter, the next few chapters are already written: Chapter 1 simply kept getting longer and longer, so the decision was made to split it up. That also allows for an earlier publishing date, and will give me feedback on how interested people are with it. Even if it will be unpopular, will I finish it? Very likely. Yes, I am aware that my track record for finishing the stories I started is terrible, but look at it this way: It's been over 10 years since I started writing fanfiction. If anything, this story almost didn't even get started because after several years of not writing fanfiction, it just felt _weird_. But I decided to metaphorically bite the bullet and started typing, because, again, why not? But because I am significantly older than when I started, I also like to think that I know a thing or two about completing tasks.

**Current story progress notes:**

Chapter 18 took me far too long, and I can't say that I am entirely satisfied with it. It kept changing a lot because it just kept dragging on and on, but I didn't want to actually abandon the main points in it: It does cover some plot points I wanted to expand on, and it does get things moving again by the end. Ironically enough, it does make chapter 18 the longest one in the story so far. Chapter 19 should take far less time to write out - I already have it mapped out far better than 18 was, and hopefully won't run into writers block like I did with 18.

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****Chapter 1: An extra assignment****

For a city that had managed to survive a near civil war caused by a predator-hating sheep, Zootopia liked to consider itself to be a bastion of resilience and strength. The residents got shaken to their core, granted, and the Nighthowler incident proved to everyone that perhaps they were not as strong as their banners and advertisements would claim, and yet, in the end, they moved on.

So when a single airliner crashed unexpectedly into the harbor off Savanna Central, apart from the usual initial frenzy and fear-mongering, it was only a matter of time before everyone calmed down. When it was announced that there were no passengers on board to have been in danger, the writing was on the wall for the news to become old news.

Still, others remained skeptical that it was a mere accident. After all Zootopia was the center of a large scale conspiracy that could have easily spilled outside of the city's borders, if not the nation's. Who was to say that there wasn't some other behind-the-scenes dealings going on that brought the airliner down?

And sure, while the neighboring Ocelotia and Urusia were struggling against each other, stalled out in a stalemate with one another, the United States of Animalia was still very much adamant with its neutrality in the conflict. The city of Zootopia itself was close to being on the other side of the continent of the conflict at any rate, so even if something did spill across the fence, Zootopia won't be anywhere close. So for the city's residents, the conflict was just something they got to read about during their morning routines. Or watch in the evenings, if that floated their boat better.

Still, mammals _were_ asking about it, if only for curiosity's sake, so it ZNN's duty to echo the questions, even if only half-heatedly. The response, as usual, was tedious and official as per usual for government representatives. The newest official bulletin was as follows, and the snow leopard on the television, while professional, didn't look excited at repeating the message.

And on a single, small television set hanging off a wall in ZPD's Precinct One lobby, the latest media update was being read, while in a very professional manner, also without any hint of emotional investment.

"_Sources within the MTSB have confirmed the identity of the recent airliner crash just off Savanna Central's harbor as belonging to an international flight originating from Ocelotia. In light of this revelation, the MTSB wishes to stress the following points to the general public:_

_First, despite the war between Ocelotia and Urusia still escalating, neither combat nor foul play are suspected to have been the cause of this tragedy. The airliner was in communication with Zootopian airspace control as per standard procedure right up until the moment all contact was lost. It is highly unlikely that either nation would seek to test the neutrality of Animalia by continuing the conflict within its airspace, especially over such a populated city such as Zootopia. As of currently, a mid-air accident or equipment failure is suspected to be the cause of the airliner's fall. Since the accident occurred within Animalian airspace, the MTSB will cooperate with Ocelotia's own agency to get to the bottom of the cause of the accident._

_Second: As workers continue to pull everything they can find out of the harbor, all citizens are asked to be courteous and leave plenty of space for those involved in the salvage operation. Please don't gather in crowds around the worksite as to leave space for vehicles to enter and leave without delays._

_And third: There is a possibility of debris from the airliner being found within the city of Zootopia close to the docks area. If you come across such a find, please contact the local authorities right away, but do not approach or touch the debris under any circumstances. It is most important that all evidence be tagged and cataloged as it was found._

_And finally, most importantly and perhaps with the greatest of luck, but the most up to date sources claim that there were no passengers on board, with only a skeleton crew fling the airliner. So while our thoughts and prayers go to the pilots and crew of the airliner, we are also eternally grateful that the death toll was far lower than it could have been._

_This message will be updated live on our website, as well as that on the MTSB. I'm Fabienne Growley, ZNN."_

"-Nick? Nick, stop watching the TV already, we have a morning briefing we need to get to."

The fox officer's ears swiveled in the direction of the voice. Blinking at the interruption, Nick smirked as he saw his rabbit partner approaching him. "Well morning to you too, Carrots," he greeted with a carefree attitude. Waving a paw at the television set, he then asked. "So, how much you want to be that we'll be standing guard at the docks again?" he asked.

Judy frowned at his casual demeanor. "Nick? An airliner crash is not something to treat lightly," she scolded. "Even if there were no passengers on board. Protecting the recovery effort is a very important job."

"Yeah, well," Nick shrugged casually. "That's what you say about _every_ job. Chasing bad guys, sure. Going to a local school to show the kids how we keep the city protected and secure? Even better." He then winked at his partner. "Placing parking tickets on cars that stayed in the same place one second too long? You're well on your way to curing cancer with that attitude!"

Despite wanting to be angry at him for using such a cheap shot, Judy couldn't help but grin instead. "That's not fair, Nick! We get placed on parking duty often because Bogo trusts us to get it done quickly and properly!"

"Yes, because angering the citizenry of Zootopia is exactly how we convince them that we are on their side," Nick protested. While his smirk lessened, it didn't fully go away either. "Carrots, all I am saying is that you have a very nasty tenancy to treat all jobs with the same enthusiasm."

Now it was Judy's turn to smirk at her partner. "And that is a bad thing exactly how..?" She placed her paws on her hips, eager to see what lame excuse Nick can come up for his counter.

"Well, instead of giving all jobs one hundred percent," a part of him realizing that it was getting dangerously close to them being late to the bullpen, Nick walked over to Judy and pushed her along in its direction as he spoke. "I was thinking, well, some jobs might only really need ninety percent effort. Eighty even."

He opened the door and the two of them were instantly greeted by the boisterous noise of the other officers and their usual morning silly antics. Even as he returned their various greeting as the two of them walked down the center to their usual spot at the front of the room, he continued to explain his rationale to Judy.

"Heck, something like parking duty? Twenty percent effort is being far too generous. So I was thinking, instead of diluting all of that effort into everything, what about concentrating it instead?" He sat down in the combined chair, Judy hopping over next to him. "Less than a hundred where you can, but then also one hundred percent plus when its needed!"

Judy grinned, shaking her head. "You can't give more than a hundred percent to a task, Nick, you know that's not how it works," she argued instead. "Admit it, you just don't like admitting that you don't give everything you can to the jobs Bogo gives you."

Nick grinned. "And that's a bad thing exactly how..? he asked, echoing Judy's tone down exactly as to what she used on him. "Burning out because I ticketed too many cars is not my idea of devoting everything I can to the city. And speaking of burning..."

Lazily, Nick Wild pulled a sleeve back from his uniform to show the fur on his arm. "Carrots, for all of yesterday we got to enjoy the great outdoors by standing around and making sure that no one interfered with the workers getting that plane out of the water. But because of that, I swear, this beautiful red fur is going to bleach into a dull yellow soon. And personally, I don't want to end up looking like Finnick." Rolling the sleeve back down, he let out a long, exaggerated yawn. "Of course, knowing Bogo, he will want us to write up some nice long, multi-page essay on how no, we didn't in fact let a mouse car drive underneath a crane."

Judy crossed her arms in annoyance. "Oh, don't be such a spoil-sport, Nick! I'm sure we'll be rotated out into a patrol, or investigate some report. Besides, you of all mammals know that these slow jobs are the most important ones. It's an _airliner crash_, Nick, it's important that the cause be found out as quickly as possible, so that it won't happen again." Uncrossing her arms, she reached out with a paw, closing it into a fist. "So the usual question still stands. Ready to make the world a better place?"

Nick simply waved a paw at his partner. "Just saying, if they wanted to keep folks out, all they needed to do was to set up some concrete barricades down. Problem solved." Never the less, smirking like he always does, he closed his paw and bumped it against Judy's. "Bet still stands on what we're doing today." His eyes darted to the side of the room when the secondary entrance door opened up.

"_Atten-hut!"_

Higgins walked into the bullpen, bringing the conversation to a halt as all of the officers stood and began to pound on their desks as per ritual to introduce Chief Bogo into the room.

Said buffalo didn't look happy as he entered. But then again, he made a habit of not appearing happy. "Settle down, everyone! I said settle down!" The pounding stopped. "Good news for today, we are returning to normalcy today. The MTSB has informed me this morning that they will not need as many officers holding down the fort, which combined with officers from other precincts finally deciding to show up, it means that most of you will be able to return to your previous tasks."

Which, as he began to hand out assignments to the various teams of officers, wasn't actually all that much.

"Hopps, Wild!" Judy's ears shot straight up in excitement at the day's prospects. Plus, it was an opportunity to earn a quick win from Nick as well. "Traffic duty!" The ears dropped slowly. As much as she was glad to win her little 'bet' with Nick, it was a Pyrrhic win at best: Monitoring traffic to hand out speeding tickets was not much better than parking duty. Sure, there was always the potential of getting into a chase, but at least you got to ride around town to put parking tickets. Traffic duty too often involved spending hours at the same spot, and was therefor, arguably, even more boring.

"You know," Nick started to tell Judy as everyone shuffled out of the bullpen, "if I didn't know any better, I would say that you _want_ crime to happen, just so you can stop it." His comment was rewarded with a punch to his arm. "Ow! Carrots, that hurts!"

"Well then don't say things like that, Nick!" Judy replied, "you know that I would never wish for someone to get hurt just to give me a chance to do something." Then, wishing to distract him from the fact that perhaps he was rather uncomfortably close to hitting home the fact that she was always on the lookout for action, she quickly added, "and as for that bet you made about our assignment? I win. Told you so!"

"Yeah yeah," Nick mumbled. "Still doesn't stop you from complaining when there isn't anything to do"

The duo continued to bicker on and off for all sorts of things as they gathered their gear and made their way to the motor pool. Picking the only police interceptor that was modified for their smaller sizes, Nick allowed himself to relax in the passenger seat as Judy took the wheel. "Bad day for speeders when the bunny's behind the radar gun," he said with a grin as the interceptor rumbled to life. Pointing a finger at the roof, he brought it down quickly so that it pointed out of the motor pool and to the street in front of them. "Hit the road, Carrots!"

Just as Nick predicted, traffic duty didn't end up being very exciting. Most of the time, if a speeder drove by, Judy simply had to hit the lights for the offender to suddenly remember that they were not in quite the hurry they thought they were. For those mammals who insisted that they were in a hurry, a freshly written speeding ticket would convince them otherwise. Still, several tedious hours later, the fox and rabbit were sitting at a cheap diner for their lunch break, enjoying the breakup in the monotone duty they were assigned to. Waiting for their food to arrive, Nick was tapping his paws on the table to a tune in his head, while Judy next to him was busy filling out the latest paperwork on the various tickets they handed out. His mind wandering, Nick couldn't help but to overhear the conversation from a group of beaver construction workers, huddling around their own meals.

"-no airliner I know uses matte gray as its livery. And the tail section that got pulled out of the water. it's escaping me for the moment, but I _swear_ I recognize that design."

"Don't start with your conspiracy theories now, Donny! I just want to enjoy a nice warm meal before we return to work. That pavement isn't going to fix itself, you know."

"Yeah? Well, how much do you know about aircraft, huh?"

"Nothing at all! But that's not important, Donny. The fact that you are always saying this and that about conspiracy _this or that_… that's important."

"-C-17! I knew I recognized that T-tail, it belongs to a C-17! That's a cargo plane! Now riddle me this: Matte gray. Military cargo bird. _Flown by a country who's airforce is currently in a signif__icant __conflict_. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

"Okay, Donny, you might have a point there. But then answer me this: Why risk breaking the neutrality of Animalia by flying a military flight over our airspace? And even if someone pulled a fast one on us, why blow it up as you claim it to be? It crashed into the sea anyways, so why worry?"

"First of all, I never said Ocelotia blew up their own aircraft, I just said I don't think it was an accident. Second, do you know how many variables there are in where a plane goes when it's wings fall off? Slightly different winds, a different flight speed, heading angle, _you name it_, frankly it's a blessing that the crash didn't happen in the city. Call it divine intervention if you want, but it's only pure luck that those cops there aren't busy pulling bodies out of downtown at this very moment."

Nick quickly looked down at the empty table as he realized that the beaver actually referred to him and Judy. The movement caught the bunny's attention, who simply gave a slight grin, her eyes still on the paperwork in front of her.

"Serves you right for eavesdropping on mammals, Nick. You know that's very rude behavior."

The fox shot her a glare. "Well excuse me for not having two giant audio receptors on top of my head," he complained just as he connected the dots. "...Hey, you were listening in too!"

Judy shrugged her shoulders. "I will neither confirm nor deny your theory." Her eyes quickly glanced away from Nick and the paperwork. "Since it looks like our food will soon arrive, here." She took the rest of the unfinished papers and moved them in Nick's direction. "You can do the rest on the second half of our shift, not like you do all that much in the shotgun seat. Perhaps you will even finish before Bogo is forced to skin you alive for tardiness. For once."

Nick flashed a grin at the waitress who finally delivered the food to them – a basic cricket burger for him, and an even simpler greens salad, topped with chopped carrots of course, for Judy. "Why, I have no idea what you are referring to, Carrots. I still have every single strand of fur that I was born with."

In between mouthfuls of lettuce, Judy paused in her chewing, reached across the table, and lifted something in front of Nick for him to see. "What about this one?" She asked, waving a single strand of auburn fur before the fox's face.

Nick grinned again, acting as casual as ever. "You can keep it if you like," he replied, "give it a name! Yes, Carrots, I do on occasion allow a strand or two to escape and live out a life of freedom." He grabbed his burger and began to eat it, chewing loudly while making sure to overemphasis how much he enjoyed the quick meal. He tried to refocus his attention on the group of beavers, but they somehow got into talking about which sheep-run organization was responsible for all of the chem trails above Zootopia, and so he quickly lost interest, and went back to smacking his lips at the greasy meal he was consuming.

Rather than comment on how she knew that Nick was trying to provoke a reaction out of her, Judy let him be a messy fox as she quickly finished up her own lunch. Getting up, she grabbed some spare change Nick left on the table as she went to pay for their meal. It was a simple alternating cycle, really: one pays for the meal, the other pays the tip. Sure, many times it would be just easier to pay separately, but on other times, it would take longer, or just be that slightly more annoying.

Turning back to fetch the fox to return to work, Judy couldn't help but smile when she saw that with the remains of his burger set off to the side, Nick was hunched over the stacks of paper she had given him, pen in paw and busy filling out the forms. Sure, her fox was brash, often rude, and made it far too much of a habit to _not_ have manners, but she also knew that when he didn't think anyone would notice, or didn't care if they did, that Nick was more than capable of doing even the mundane, boring chores of modern life. Skills that no doubt had helped him with his hustling, and were now in turn used for the greater good.

"Ready to go?" Judy asked, drawing Nick's attention away from the papers. "Car's already waiting."

Gathering up his work, Nick made sure not to forget his drink as he followed the bunny back to the over-sized police interceptor waiting for them on the parking lot. "So, miss long-ears," he started to say as he clasped his seat belt on, "since you can get away with listening in on mammals without looking suspicious, what did you think of our beaver friends?" He smirked in her direction, repaying the favor of 'scolding' her for eavesdropping.

Pulling out of the parking lot, "What do I think about that conversation?" she repeated, then returned the smirk to the fox. "Whatever the official story is on it, that's what I think."

Nick folded his arms in annoyance. "Aww, come on now, Carrots. I'm not a civilian, and it's no fun to just default on the answer like that!" When Judy refused to give in, he chose to glare out the window. All pretend, of course, he didn't actually care what she thought in this case, but it was more of the principle of letting her know that Judy can't get away with hurting his feelings. After several minutes of staring out at the passing city as they drove to their traffic duty location, he remembered that he had wanted to look something up. "Say, Carrots, about those beavers again, what was the number of the plane that one guy mentioned? It was C- someth-"

"-17" Judy answered before he could even finish asking the question, her eyes glued onto the road ahead of them. She did risk a quick glance at the fox when some sudden movement from Nick caught her attention out of her peripheral vision. "Nick! You know that we can't use our phones for personal use while on duty!"

"But this _isn't_ personal!" Nick countered, "well, not really. But it's very loosely related to what we did yesterday, so it's not _not_ duty related." He waited until Judy had to stop their interceptor due to a red light. "See look, what do you think of this?" He held up the screen for her to see. "Remind you of anything from yesterday?"

Judy looked over the many different images of the aircraft on the image search that Nick pulled up. "My eyes were on the crowds, Nick, not on what they were pulling out of the water," she eventually said, "and even from I saw, which wasn't much, I might add you, it was all broken bits and pieces, so I wouldn't know what I was looking at even if you showed me directly." Returning her attention back to the road, she let out a sigh. "Listen, Nick, our job isn't to worry about that. As the news loves to remind us all the time now, that's the MTSB's job. So unless you want to switch occupations, I can recommend that you put your phone down, and rather get going on those papers you still need to complete."

"You're no fun, Carrots."

It was the perfect opportunity for an oldie but a goldie. "You know you love me."

The fox sighed. "Called it. You really ought to be grateful that I allow myself to walk straight into these things."

Their conversation about airliners and beavers over, it was time to settle back into 'traffic duty mode', which much like the morning, wasn't much. It did allow Nick to not only catch up, but to actually complete the paperwork that was due, even if it did require some nagging from a certain bunny cop. Still, there was no hiding the triumphant smirk on his muzzle as they pulled into the motor pool at the end of the day, a folder of papers under his arm ready to be delivered to the appropriate holder.

Ridding himself of the folder into his cubicle, Nick didn't bother waiting for Judy. Or in this case, she hadn't bothered to wait for him, already off to the ladies' locker room to change out of her uniform. Since they always met up by Clawhauser's desk anyways, he didn't pay much mind to it as he went to get himself changed as well.

So it was to his great surprise that when he got out, Pawaiian shirt over khaki pants of his usual casual wear, Judy was waiting right outside the door, still dressed in her police uniform and looking rather impatient. Her foot was tapping repeatedly on the ground – never a good sign.

"If you had waited a whole half minute later to turn off your radio, you would have heard me call you out of the locker room," she said as a reply to his questioning stare. "Bogo wants to see us in his office."

Nick's ears fell, and for once, he remained silent. A visit to the office at this time of day meant that he was going to be in _serious_ trouble – it's not like Carrots ever did anything to deserve disciplining. Except that for once, he could also not figure out what he had done that would get Bogo riled up like this. Sure, Nick was always quick to shoot a sly remark and his sarcasm towards the chief knew no ends, but he drew the line with practical jokes towards his fellow beat officers, and only the ones he knew would take the joke, roll with it, and potentially repay him in kind. In other words, apart from attitude, the fox made sure that he didn't actually do anything that would lead to actual trouble with his superior. Judy made sure of that all the time. But by the way she was looking at him, he was saddened to see her look of disappointment. There was no need to guess that she was also trying to figure out what he did to deserve the punishment.

And he was changed into his Pawaiian getup on his way to his boss' office. What an idiot.

Knowing that delaying would only make things worse for them, Judy knocked on the door as soon as they came over. A short but stern "enter!" was shouted from the other side of the door. Nick felt his hopes raise slightly. Bogo didn't sound _too_ angry. At least not any more angry than his normal self. Best be careful though and not get hopes too high up.

The bunny and fox cops entered the office, with Nick trying as much as possible to hide behind Judy, if such a feat was possible considering their size difference.

The buffalo looked up from his work when the two entered, and snorted in annoyance. "For goodness sake, Wilde, don't look like you're walking to your funeral. I need you and Hopps on an extra assignment for today." It was then that he noticed the clothing Nick was wearing. "Wilde, please tell me that you at least have your badge with you. I do recall very clearly sending out a message to you and Hopps, one that apparently she received but you somehow _didn't_."

Nervously, Nick pulled his wallet out of his pocket, showing his badge to Bogo. "Good, then I don't have to reprimand you for being out of uniform. Now, I really don't have time, and neither do you, so I'll get straight to the point: I need the two of you to meet up with Officers Fangmeyer and Wolford. Clawhauser will tell you where. Some suspicious activity has been reported in the Jungle District, and they found pair of interlopers running around and getting citizens all nervous. Had at least several complaints already today."

"What are we needed to help with, sir? As in, exactly?" Judy asked. This didn't sound like a very 'urgent' assignment, more rather like something that would be assigned at the next day's morning roll call. Plus, there was the added fact that when it came to actively tracking mammals, the duo of Wolford and Fangmeyer were almost impossible to beat. "And the suspects? Did they do anything wrong?"

"You and Wilde are both small enough to follow the suspects," Bogo replied with a sigh. "They have been reported using small alleyways and dark corners to hide away whenever cops would get close to investigate. Wolford can follow them, but not quickly enough. Fangmeyer, if there is no way to get around, is too big. And it's out of the jurisdiction to request help from Little Rodentia's forces. So they asked for the two of you specifically."

Pointing out the door, the chief gave a stern look at the two officers. "As for the suspects, no, we are not aware of them breaking any laws. But they do know that we're following them, and they are actively evading us. So at the very least, we can argue probable cause for getting close to them and at least making contact. Find out what they are doing and why the residents are getting all worked up over them. Get the latest info from Clawhauser." Bogo glared at the two officers, but especially at Judy. "Do _not_ gossip with him while you're there. Also, by the time you link up with Wolford and Fangmeyer, I, and Clawhauser as well most likely, will be done for the day, so you'll be reporting to the evening different dispatcher. Pay attention to the radio for the switch. Wilde: Do _not_ try their patience, they are not used to you nor your radio habits, and I don't want to spend tomorrow morning having to argue you out of a reprimand. Overtime for all of this has been approved, and we'll figure out tomorrow's schedule after this is all done as well. And last minute questions?"

Nick and Judy both shook their heads.

Standing up so that he can lean closer to the bunny and fox, Bogo's stare could almost bore holes in their heads if the buffalo so wished. "I do not want an incident with this. Now go."

As the two turned to leave, the chief cleared his throat to get their attention. "Actually, I have a better idea," Bogo announced. "Hopps, you get the information from Clawhauser. Wilde… loose those rags of yours and put your uniform back on. Now _git!_"


	2. Chapter 2

Nick fled Bogo's office before the chief could think of something else he disproved of, leaving Judy to run down to the dispatch desk for their information. Knowing that with time being against them, and that the bunny could easily be worse than Bogo when it came to urging him on, Nick only pulled on his uniform pants inside the locker rooms, opting to instead grab the rest of his uniform to change in the car as Judy would drive them. His eyes still bulged when he saw that despite his rush, Judy was again waiting for him just out the door, a document in paw. "What did you do? _Teleport_ to Clawhauser's?"

Judy grabbed his tie and began to pull him towards the motorpool for the second time that day. He barely even had any time to toss his uniform inside their interceptor and jump in after it before the bunny had started the motor and was already driving off. Radio in one paw, she alerted Wolford and Fangmeyer that help was on the way. "Unit twelve to unit seven, we are heading in your direction. Keep us updated on your twenty."

"_Roger that, unit twelve! Currently on intersection of Tujunga and G avenue."_

Ironically though, for all the rush in getting to the car, because they weren't actually responding to an emergency, all Judy was allowed to do was drive with the lights on, but the siren off. Without the verbal cue to alert the traffic in front, driving was only slightly faster than without any lights or sirens at all. It did mean that Nick was able to complete changing into his uniform in relative comfort, however. "So what's the news from Claws, Carrots?" he asked as he pulled his Pawaiian shirt over his head, replacing it with the blues of his patrol suit. "Do we know who we're going after?"

Judy tapped the steering wheel impatiently while traffic in front of them alternated between pulling over to the side of the road and ignoring her completely, either out of ignorance or even purposefully out of malice. "We know that there are two suspects, one appears to be some small wolf. The other might looked like a deer, but not confirmed." She glanced at Nick, who finally finished changing. With the rush job he did while being confined underneath a seat belt, the result was rough, but it wasn't like they were going out on parade or anything. "James and Dahlia were chasing them for most of the day by this point, but only decided recently to ask for our help. Whoever they are, the two suspects know how to hide from cops." She smirked at Nick, "but now that the ZPD has smaller officers like us, they won't be able to use their smaller sizes against us."

Nick returned her smirk, nodding in agreement.

"And like Bogo told us, they haven't actually done anything illegal yet, just act strange. So all going well, we'll find them, talk to them, and be done before it gets dark."

The fox grumbled and stared out the window as the interior went dark as they drove through a tunnel marking the transition form Savanna Central to the Jungle District. "You know what Bogo always says, Fluff. With you, nothing ever goes easy." He frowned as he stared out the window, noting that it was already noticeably darker than even when they had just left on this latest task – the sun was setting, and with Zootopia's tall buildings blocking the horizon, it would soon be dark. While the fox wasn't worried to much – being naturally nocturnal, he wouldn't have to rely so much on coffee to operate at this time. But his partner Judy relied a lot on getting to sleep on time in order to be wide awake and bouncy the next morning. And Nick's gut was telling him that he would need his partner's full abilities for this. After all, it was rather unusual to ask for a pair of officers to work overtime just to investigate some 'suspicious activity' - especially if no actual crime was committed. Why send Nick and Judy in after their shift had already ended? Unless, of course, Bogo knew something that he wasn't telling, an idea that made Nick feel nervous.

With the heavier traffic during rush hour, it was in fact already quite darker when they spotted Wolford's and Fangmeyer's cruiser parked on the side of the street, illuminated in the yellowish sodium lights of street lighting system from above. Wolford himself was standing next to a building, beckoning them over as soon as the wolf spotted their vehicle pulling over. Despite Fangmeyer not being in sight, the wolf didn't look nervous.

Exiting their interceptor, Nick and Judy walked over to Wolford. "Status update?" Judy asked, getting straight to the point. "Where's Dahlia?"

Wolford nodded in greeting, then motioned at a narrow gap between the building they were next to and its neighbor. "Our suspects went in here. Believe it or not, but this gap is an actual street. Guess just not for larger mammals like us." He aligned himself with the gap to show that he could only just barely fit in. "I can go in, but barely. Fangmeyer can't fit in at all. She's using the rooftops to get ahead of our suspects, while I keep the back door guarded. But when we tried that before, the two suspects always managed to somehow slip away, so that's why we asked for you two." Backing out of the alley, he grinned at Nick and Judy. "And now that you're here, we were hoping to send you in to flush them out. Or at least talk to them and get them to stop spooking the locals."

He glanced back down the small alleyway. "I'll keep it short: Earlier today the two suspects bumped into a local, who phoned us to report on their unusual behavior. The suspects? One's a deer, the other a small wolf. Oh, and the deer's hurt somehow. The citizen didn't get a good look, but that deer was definitely limping, and had a bandaged leg. When our local tried to help, the deer threatened him, and the wolf helped the two of them run away. That's when our guy phoned in, and we were able to regain the trail on the two suspects after we lost it. Now we chased them into this here block, and they're somewhere inside."

Wolford then reached into his tool belt and produced a pair of pawheld radios. "Here, use these. Their signal won't be effected by other units reporting in, but it also means that if you need to send a message to everyone else, remember to use the main radios instead." Using his own handheld, he talked into it, updating Fangmeyer on the situation. "Hopps and Wilde are on scene. Do you still have eyes on our suspects?"

"_Negative, __lost them about a minute ago. __Good__ visual__s__ on all exits, __so they're not escaping from me again__. They __must still be__ somewhere inside this maze of corridors. Hopps, Wilde, if you'__ll__ please, find them. __I __can__ guide you from above.__"_

"Copy that," Judy radioed back, motioning for Nick to follow her. She cast Wolford a quick glance over her shoulder. "Keep the back door closed, and the car warm!"

Wolford nodded. "Stay safe," he said back at them, only to motion for them to wait. "The two suspects didn't give us a reason to think that they're dangerous, but with the deer hurt, they might just get desperate if we get too close. Give them credit for being able to avoid us for as long as they did, but it also might mean that they are running scared, and you know how mammals get in these situations." He let out a sigh, glancing at the alley entrance. "If you will need help, Fangmeyer can get in faster than me, but even she will take time. So for when it matters, if things go bad, you're on your own. So ears up, eyes open." He winked at the two officers. "If all of this is just nothing, feel free to call me paranoid later. Good luck!"

With Nick in tow, Judy entered the dark alleyway, leaving the lights of the main street behind them. Finding it difficult to see in the rapidly fading light, Judy reached into her toolbelt to get her phone out, and specifically, the flashlight function on it. But as soon as her paw went down for it, she felt Nick reach out and stop her.

"Don't want the light alerting them that we're coming," the fox whispered to her, "better I go in front of you. I can see relatively well here." Stepping carefully around her, Judy now was able to see even less due to looking at the fox's back.

"_One hundred yards in front of you, the lane should open up and give you more breathing space. Also, it's an intersection, but I need to reposition to tell you which direction to follow."_

As per Fangmeyer's instructions, the buildings did part ahead of them, and it didn't take too much time to reach the intersection. Peering in either direction didn't reveal anything useful, just more dark buildings and empty spaces between them.

"What if we split up?" Judy suggested. "Cover more ground that way?"

Nick shook his head. "We've watched those movies together, Fluff. Those who split up get taken out apart. Better stay together for now." To his horror, not moments later, Fangmeyer, through the radio, felt like giving a different opinion.

"_Just spotted movement… yes, it's the smaller of the two suspects. He's found an exit and might make a break for it. Moving to intercept..." _Hardly a second passed before the radio crackled back to life. _"Shi- he spotted me! Now he's… Correction, suspect went back into the alleyways. No visual on the second. Wilde, if you take the path on your right, you will be en route to intercept our smaller suspect I just saw. Think you can manage on your own while I guide Hopps towards the last known location of our second suspect?"_

Nick let out a long sigh, glancing up where he even thought he saw a fleeting glimpse of Fangmeyer jumping over the gaps of the roofs to get into a better position. "Just keep in contact," he finally radioed back, and ventured into the path away from Judy, red tail disappearing into the darkness.

"_Okay, Hopps, head straight for two blocks over, then a block to the left. There is a small clearing, that's the location. I'll keep off the comms so as to not to alert our guests, but feel free to radio in for guidance on your own volition."_

Heading slowly with the directions given, Judy relied heavily on her hearing to alert her of any potential danger in front of her. She had to give credit to the suspects if hiding from the police was their goal: the artificial jungle environment, and more relevantly for her, the near constant 'rain' at multiple locations nearby from sprinklers masked quieter noises rather well.

But she wasn't valedictorian of her class for nothing. So when she heard rustling of some loose material on the ground right as she was about to enter the mentioned clearing, Judy paused, listening carefully. Yes, the telltale sound of someone breathing just around the corner. Just in case, she pulled out her dart gun, checking to make sure it was loaded, and waited to listen on any other noises that might betray the identity of the personal nearby.

It wasn't Nick – he would have walked over and turned the corner by now. The suspect perhaps? "Hopps checking in, I might be about to make contact with the suspects," she spoke into the radio. "Standby for update."

"_Copy that Hopps! Be careful!_"

Taking in a breath to steady herself, reminding herself that they weren't even perusing criminals, just a mere pair of mammals who were acting strangely, Judy decided to be the one to let her presence be known. "Uh, hello?" She started to say before actually walking into the clearing. There was no one there, but she did see a dark corner where someone might try to… yes, there was someone there. "Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD. I would like to-"

"-just talk..." Her words stopped as she turned the corner and found herself staring straight at the business end of a nasty looking gun. The owner behind it lurked inside blackened cover, with only the skinny limb of a deer that was holding the gun being any visible.

"No sudden movements," the gun's owner said. "No surprises, and no one gets hurt. Got it?"

Judy nodded, nose twitching rapidly as her mind raced to think of how she would get herself out of this situation.

"Drop your weapon. Slowly." Judy did as instructed, slowly lowering her tranq gun and kicking it aside, but also making sure to note where it went. The hidden deer wasn't finished, though. "Good, now uh, tell me why you are here. Why are you following me?" He waved the gun a little in a motion to tell her to also move further out of sight of potential onlookers. Still planning on her move to take the deer out, Judy complied for now.

As for the question, Judy felt confused. Was she really asked why she was doing her job? "You mean why I followed you into here? Because we received reports of suspicious activity." She glared at the gun. "And you're not proving them wrong. I really ought to be asking you why _you_ are here, with that gun."

"That's not important." The deer answered, not sounding even convinced himself. Then naturally, as things like these go, Judy's radio chose to betray itself.

"_Hopps, come in. Where's that update? Is everything okay down there? Key the mic twice if you can't talk."_

Out of instinct, Judy grabbed the radio, but before she could say anything, another flick of the gun reminded her that she shouldn't be making sudden movements. Not until she was ready to take the deer out, that is.

"Don't answer that." Her paw lowered from the radio. "How many of you are out here looking for us?"

"_Hopps? Come in Hopps!" _Then to make things worse for her, the next announcement came from the main radio rather than the handheld unit. _"Dispatch, be advised, Officer Hopps failed a check-in. Standby for an update, she might simply be having equipment issues. We're between buildings of the Amazonian Paradise Complex, Jungle District."_

"_Copy that, Fangmeyer. All units, please be advised, head over to the in the jungle district area if you are close by." _

As the chatter died down, Judy chose to bluff. "Just me and my partner, who you just heard. No one else." Then to add some credence to her bluff, she added, "but if I remain silent for much longer, there will be a lot more cops circling this area. You heard the radio just as well as I have." Her ears picked up the telltale sound of someone walking closer, and her hopes rose – Nick was just down the block and getting closer.

The deer still didn't budge. "Don't answer it," he repeated sternly.

A new unfamiliar voice broke the tense silence in a loud whisper. "Count? I found a way out." No, that wasn't Nick, which means… Oh, right... The second suspect. In only a few seconds, Judy would have to deal with not one, but two hostile mammals. "The cops are closing in on us, so we'll need to - Count, _what in the world_ _are you doing!?" _

Despite focusing her attention on the deer still holding her at gunpoint, Judy's mind raced even faster as soon as she heard the shocked, and more importantly for her, horrified tone of the newcomer. Must be that wolf suspect Wolford told them about.

As much as the situation she now found herself in got worse with the introduction of a a highly illegal firearm, the fact that shooting her was not sounding like part of the plan was good for her. _And_, a part of her mind was thinking, better for them once she's through with arresting their tails.

The gun in front of Judy lowered, but only slightly. "What was I supposed to do, Trigger? She was right on top of me! I can't run anymore!"

The newcomer let out a groan of frustration. "And you think I can? You can't pull a gun on a cop! Are you crazy? Lower the gun, Count. _Now_!" Out of the corner of her eye, Judy saw the second suspect move in front of her.

The barrel lowered slightly, but not enough to put Judy out of danger. "Uh, no."

While the two suspects argued with themselves, Judy started to look around with her eyes for her tranq gun.

"Damn it, Count! Don't be stupid! Drop it!_ That's an order_!"

"Go to hell, Trigger! You can't order me around!"

"_Try me_!"

From the corner of her vision, just barely making him out through the darkness, Judy saw the wolf walk around her, only to stop next to the deer, placing one of his paws directly over the weapon. For a few tense moments, the two seemed to not quite fight over it in silence, with the deer relenting and allowing the wolf to take the gun away. As soon as the gun was in the wolf's control, he immediately ejected the magazine, cycling the bolt several times to make sure that the chambered round was ejected as well. Holding the now empty gun and the magazine loosely in his paws, the wolf let out a long, tired sigh as he stumbled away from the deer, backing into a concrete ledge and collapsing onto it. He stared at the items in his paws, breathing slowly and deeply.

"Really sorry about this, officer" he suddenly said, sounding genuinely apologetic. "Count is really jumpy at the moment." He snorted in an ironic amusement. "Hell, we both are." Glancing up to the dark corner where the dear was, he said, "Count, might as well come out now. No use hiding there anymore." The deer didn't budge.

Judy's radio crackled to life again before she could respond. _"Hopps, I think suspect two is heading in your direction. Give us an update __now__, Hopps!"_

The bunny reached for her radio uncertainly. "I really need to answer this," she told the wolf, who simply waved her off in a 'whatever' motion, gun and magazine still in paw. Grabbing the radio in her paw, she felt relief at being able to communicate with her friends again. "Sorry, was rather busy for a second there." Setting aside the handheld, she needed to clear things up with the main radio as well. "Dispatch, this is officer Hopps. Made contact with both suspects. Everything's fine, sorry that I wasn't able to answer right away."

"_Really? Copy that, Hopps! Need me to send in backup?"_

"Negative, dispatch. We've got it handled."

The small wolf cleared his throat nervously. "Look, I know we started off on the wrong foot, but it would be _really_ nice of you if we were allowed to just walk away..."

Judy shook her head. "You both know I can't do that." Having spotted her dropped tranquilizer on the ground, she quickly picked it up, turning it to the wolf, whose eyes glanced back and forth between the gun in his paws and her newly reacquired tranq gun. "Do I need to do it?" Judy asked, motioning with her tranquilizer at him, as though daring him to make a move.

The wolf only shook his head, almost as though ashamed, an action that caused the deer, still hidden, to snort in disgust. "You're a real first class idiot, Trigger."

"Count, if you say one more-" began the wolf standing up quickly, only to be interrupted with a surprised yelp as he was tackled from behind.

Officer Wilde just arrived on scene.

Pressing down on the wolf with his knees, Nick forced his target's arms behind his back, slapping on a set of pawcuffs and tightening them in a matter of seconds. "You all right there, Carrots?" he asked, sounding and looking rather pleased with himself despite the struggling suspect beneath him. Pointing his own tranquilizer to where the deer was, his next words were with much more force and hostility. "Don't move, Gimpy!"

Judy stared at the commotion in front of her, mouth open in shock. "Nick? He was helping me!" she protested, but then caught up to the second thing the fox had said. "Wait, what? '_Gimpy_'?"

The wolf underneath Nick struggled to free himself from the pin he was locked into, but his attention wasn't directed at escaping. "Count_, _don't! _S__tand down__!"_

Judy quickly turned, preparing for a fight, just in time to see the deer had emerged from his hiding place. A short metal pipe was clenched in one hoof, ready to strike her, but the deer stood in a tense silence apart from furious breathing.

Nick's voice broke the tension, still hostile, but not quite as much as before. "I would listen to your friend. Drop the pipe, gimpy. You don't want to try us. One more step towards my partner and I _drop you cold_." The last statement was emitted in a lower growl that easily conveyed the idea across that the fox was willing to fight if he needed to.

The deer, Count, continued to glare, but relented and lowered the pipe, letting it drop to the ground in a metallic _clank_. "You know, giving up sure did you a lot of good, Trigger," he told the struggling wolf as he backed into a pile of boxes and sat down on them, one of his legs held out rather awkwardly. "Never considered you to be one to quit." It was then that Judy noticed the roughly tightened band of cloth, stained dark with what she was guessing to be blood.

Feeling that the immediate danger was over, Nick got off his catch. "Trigger? Nice name!" he praised, "how did you get that, wolfy?" The wolf remained on the ground mumbling something into the pavement. "I didn't catch that. Want to run it by me again?" Nick asked again, "I'm genuinely curious on how you get a name like that."

"I'm not a wolf," 'Trigger' replied lamely, "I'm a coyote."

"Really? I gotta see that!" Securing the dropped gun, he pulled said coyote up to a stand. Nick grinned as he found himself staring at an angry looking canine, only slightly larger than himself, sporting a fresh gash from where his head hit concrete. "Huh," Nick muttered, "thought there was something odd about you. All the info we got told us were were dealing with a small wolf." He patted down the coyote, feeling around for any hidden weapons. He frowned when he felt something else rather unexpected "Why is your clothing all soaking wet?" Not getting an answer, he continued to search for weapons and came up empty. "Okay, buddy, you're clean. Turn around." Trigger did as ordered without saying anything. "So, Judy, did um, 'Trigger' here really help you out?"

"Yes, Nick," Judy replied in an annoyed tone, "that gun came from 'Count'. That deer surprised me when I entered this clearing, but then 'Trigger' found us and convinced him that holding a hostage was a bad idea. So yeah, you can say that he helped me."

Nick shrugged his shoulders. "Well in that case..." he pawed a small key out of his belt and used it to remove the cuffs off the coyote he caught. "Guess I can thank you for making the situation easier for us."

Trigger sighed in relief as his arms were released, rubbing his wrists to help regain some feeling back. "Does this mean you are letting us go?"

Nick put on his hustler smile. "Yeah… No. No we're not."

Count snorted from behind them. "Told you, Trigger. You're a real idiot."

The fox's grin grew even wider. "Want us to tranq him on your behalf?"

Trigger's eyes grew wide. "What? No!"

"Just kidding! Offer still stands if you change your mind though." Nick motioned towards the gap between the buildings that would lead them back to the main street. "But speaking of letting you go, how's this idea: if you two come with us willingly back to the station, we might even not throw you into the slammer right away. Instead, when we get back, we will figure out where to go from there. That sound like a plan?"

The coyote glanced over at his deer companion, who glared back instead. "You're not the cop I saw on the roof," Trigger muttered. "That one looked like a tiger…" Nick simply grinned and shrugged, refusing to either confirm nor deny the coyote's theory.

Letting out a long sigh, Trigger looked up at the sky above them. "You're going to hate me for this, Count, but let's do as they say. It's the best chance we've got."

"Fuck you, Trigger," Count cursed loudly at his companion in reply, causing Nick to chuckle.

"Gee, who paired up you two?" The fox waved off a reply. "Anyways, it's late, and I sense far too much paperwork for this. So how about we follow the two of you and take you down to the station?"

Count apparently had a better idea. "I say we take them on and run."

"_No_, Count!" Trigger's breathing rapidly increase in pace, and the coyote had to visibly force himself to calm down. "Count, I can't keep going like this!" he complained. "You need to have someone look at your leg before you lose it permanently. I haven't slept in days, and for half that time I had to lug you around! I'm tired, I'm cold." He suddenly growled in frustration. "Damn it Count, just admit it that we're in a fight we can't win!"

"So you just want to give up?"

"_Yes_, Count!" Trigger hissed. "We lost the moment we got trapped in here. We can't run anymore, and I refuse to start fighting. These cops are not our enemy."

"That's rather ironic coming from you, Trigger." The deer smirked as his retort earned him an angry growl from the coyote.

"Don't you _dare_, Count!"

Slowly, Count's smirk faded, morphing into an angry glare. "Okay, _okay_!" he finally concluded. "Have it your way!" Trigger visibly relaxed as soon as Count relented into giving up.

Nick rolled his eyes at the pair's antics. And here he thought that he and Carrots were an unusual combination. He waved the discarded gun and magazine. "That's a real piece of work here. How many local and national regulations does this break, Carrots? Ten? More?" He pointed at Count with the magazine. "You held an officer at gun point. We can easily add resisting arrest on top of that. But if say, you and your pal went with us willingly, we will simply take you down to the station, ask some questions about what you were doing tonight, and then possibly we might or might not let you go." Nick stared down at the deer, using his status as an officer of the law to make up for the full head of height that he lacked on Count. "No promises, but Trigger here is correct: cooperating with us is your best chance. And no," he added while motioning towards Judy, "you can't take us on. Ever seen Carrots here knock out a rhino with one kick? You wouldn't want it to be your head. Trigger? Your two cents?"

At Nick's question, Trigger took the initiative. "Let's just go, Count."

"What about my leg?" Whined Count, holding out the bandaged limb for emphasis. Trigger didn't say anything, simply walking over and pulling Count up by the arm. Ironically enough, when Nick also moved over to help, Count sent the fox away with an angry glare. "I didn't ask you, _fox_!"

Judy opened her mouth to protest, but Trigger saw her and was able to guess what she was about to say, for he quickly shook his head at her, begging her visually to drop the matter. With the immediate conflict over, the coyote started to walk in the direction leading out the small courtyard, half-dragging his deer companion behind him. Having made the first move and quickly being limited by the narrow gaps of the buildings, he stayed in front of Nick and Judy as the four mammals made their way back to the main streets and the waiting cars. Fangmeyer guided them back through the radio, but Trigger didn't act like he was lost as they headed out.

"_Officer Hopps and Wilde moving back to our vehicles, suspects are with us."_

From behind Trigger and Count, making sure that they wouldn't attempt to run away, Nick also used the opportunity to whisper to Judy some questions that were bugging him. "So how much can you actually see in this light?" was the first one. He wasn't worried about being overheard – if anything, he would have a hard time hearing over the loud panting coming from Trigger still dragging Count along.

"Not much at all," Judy admitted. "Just general shapes, really. Depends on the immediate lighting around us."

"That explains a lot," Nick whispered back. "I was wondering if you had noticed that they are both wearing the same uniform. Look like some sort of flight suits. Boots, shoulder patch flag, all of that jazz."

At the mentioning of footwear, Judy looked down, squinting through the darkness. Sure enough, Trigger wasn't walking on his paws, and Count wasn't relying on his hoofs. "Yeah, I didn't notice that."

In front of them, Trigger stopped, and by extension, so did Count.

"What's the hold up? Go on," Nick urged, but the two didn't move. Go figure that they were stuck where the buildings were at their most narrowest, with no way around anyone.

"There's a wolf there," Trigger finally wheezed out, "and a tiger. Both armed. Tell them not to shoot us!"

Judy took a step forward, then hopped on top of Trigger, earning a yelp of complaint from the coyote, and a chuckle of glee from Count. "Wolford! Fangmeyer! You can put those away, everything's all clear!" Emerging onto the street, and more importantly, the street lighting, she had to blink at just how _bright_ everything suddenly was. From behind her emerged the other three, Trigger visibly struggling with getting Count out of the narrow gap between the buildings.

Dropping Count onto a rather convenient bench nearby, Trigger had to hop onto the same bench after the deer, legs dangling off the end. "If you still want to run, go ahead, but I'm done carrying you," he muttered while still trying to catch his breath.

Officer Wolford approached the two, giving them a quick glance over. "The two of you gave us quite a chase," he eventually said, leaning close to sniff at Trigger, wrinkling his nose at what he found. Trigger, for his part, gave and annoyed glare at the treatment. "So much for a 'wolf'. Even in a large city like this, not too many coyotes around here," Wolford added, "so… pilots, I'm guessing?" He looked at the shoulder patches. "Ocelotian?" He held out a paw in a 'hand it over' gesture. "IDs, if you please." Neither Trigger nor Count moved.

Judy's voice made them change their minds. "It won't help you if avoid this. We will find out one way or another in the end, so don't try us." Wasn't she busy talking with the fox and tiger?

Trigger was the first to pull out his information out of a chest pocket.

Wolford took it and his eyes widened at what he saw. "Woah, hey, guys, you wanna check this out!" He held out Trigger's ID for the other cops to see. "Look, no name, and even his face's all covered up!"

Nick grabbed the small papers from Wolford's paw and took a look, aware that Fangmeyer was able to see from behind him well enough. His eyes widened when he saw exactly what the wolf was talking about. "Oh, wow, here Carrots, take a look." He lowered the ID to Judy's level, trying not to chuckle when she then proceeded to shine a light to be able see better.

Trigger's picture was there, all right, oddly looking like a mugshot. But what was significantly more noticeable were the three white lines, drawn with a crude marker, blocking out most of his face. Upon closer inspection, it didn't even look like a post-editing job either: the three lines were part of the original photograph, or as original as they can get. Looking lower, Judy was astounded at the lack of information given by the 'identification card'. Was this what passed for an ID in Ocelotia? Instead of his real name, the appropriate field was labeled as "TAC NAME", followed by the simple 'Trigger' that the coyote was already going by. Next to "LOCATION", the information given was '444 Fighter Squadron'. Where the badge of the authorizing organization for the ID would normally go was the colored roundel and name of 'Ocelotian Air Defense Force'. No other information was given, not even in the few patches of fine print that Judy was able to find. The opposite side of the paper was empty.

"Count, let's see your ID as well," Judy commanded, figuring that being able to compare the two IDs would tell her if this was an elaborate joke, or the real deal. Despite complaining, the deer handed his papers over as well. To Judy's annoyance, the information was almost identical. The only difference was that Counts "TAC NAME" was 'Count', which was consistent and at least expected if not what she was hoping to see. Oh, and Count's picture only had a single line across it, rather than three. Knowing that there was zero information that she would be able to use to look up the two mammals inside the database linked to the police vehicles, Judy thought of what to do. "Fangmeyer, come with me," she eventually said, "Nick, Wolford, stay and watcher over these two."

She lead the tiger to the interceptor, climbing inside for a measure of privacy. "What do you think?" she asked when Fangmeyer climbed in after her, "I'm afraid we are dealing with the real deal here. Didn't that airliner crash into the docks? They could be survivors."

Fangmeyer nodded and reached over for the two IDs Judy still had with her for a second look. "Flight crew perhaps? I wouldn't see why someone would fake something like this. Wouldn't be too different than me walking with my Mars residency card. But if they are real, and if they are military as these say, then they just might, they might have different regulations for IDs there would be my guess." The tiger handed the papers back. She huffed a puff of air. "So what do you propose we do? Take them down to the station and put them in a cell?"

Judy shook her head. "Under what charges?"

Fangmeyer grinned. "Didn't Nick just tell James and I that that 'Count' fellow pull a gun on you?" Her grin fell. "I recognize that model Wilde confiscated. Do you have any idea what would have been left of you if that deer freaked out and shot you? For a medium to large mammal, those bullets won't do much. For Francine, I doubt they'll even be able to go through her skin, not unless they are loaded with armor-piercing ammo. But for a bunny like you? At point blank range, and the rate of fire on that thing will mean that we would be scraping you up with tweezers. And I'm sure Nick would love to do just that." She shook her head. "There's a reason why those things are banned on the federal level. And you want to simply ignore the fact that a deer with highly suspect identification pointed that_ thing_ at you?"

"Yeah, well, but Trigger stopped him!" Judy protested, "besides, it's not right to lock both of them just because of a deer overreacted upon finding themselves in a strange new environment. Think of it as something we can add on top of other charges."

The tiger let out a chuckle. "Overreacting? Won't be the only prey mammal to do so," she admitted, staring at the bunny in an odd manner.

Judy had to take a few moments before she realized exactly what the other officer was referring to. "_Dahlia__!_" she screeched, horrified, "that's not fair!"

Fangmeyer, in turn, laughed even harder. "Hey, Judy, would you rather be angry at you for that press conference, or laugh about it?"

The bunny groaned as she dropped her head onto the steering wheel, ears flopping over towards the windscreen. "How about neither?" She complained, "I was totally set up on that conference!"

Fangmeyer stopped laughing as the tiger regained control of herself. "You totally were set up on that," she agreed, "there's a reason rookie cops don't do press conferences so early in their careers. And never for cases with that much media attention." She tapped the dash of the car in thought. "So coming back to our suspects..." The tiger looked back behind her in curiosity as the tailgate was opened. "We were still sent in to investigate suspicious activity," the tiger continued explaining, "are you sure there isn't something we can use against them?" She continued to watch the back of the car as Nick began to rummage through the first aid kit stored there.

The fox didn't found what he was looking for and grabbed it. "What about that doozy of a gun we grabbed off them?" he asked as he finished repacking the first aid kit.

"We already mentioned that, Nick." Judy replied with a hint of impatience.

Nick shrugged. "Just a suggestion." He followed Fangmeyer's gaze and noticed that the tiger was looking at what he grabbed from the back. "Oh, this?" It was a folded up thermal blanket, really nothing more than a very thin sheet of reflective plastic. "Trigger started shivering like mad just now. Told us his uniform's been fully soaked for a good two full days or so, and was having issues staying warm since last night. And since we're on the subject," Nick continued, "he also convinced that deer to let Wolford take a look at that leg. Both of them insist on no ambulances and no hospitals, but they might not even need one: whoever did bandaging knew what they were doing and it doesn't look bad at all." With a quick wave of a paw and a wink, the fox closed the liftgate and left the bunny and tiger alone in the vehicle again.

After a brief moment of silence, Judy spoke up. "So here's an idea. What if we don't charge them with anything? Think about it: the airplane you are in blows up on you, but you survive somehow. So you are now lost, almost certainly confused. Who wouldn't run and try to hide? Sure, it's stupid in my opinion, but understandable, and more importantly, not illegal."

"That's your new idea? Let them go? Then what will they do next?" Fangmeyer didn't sound convinced.

"I say we call Bogo," Judy finally sounded certain.

"Just checking, but you remember that it's very late, and that he hates being called during his off-hours? What happened to the supervisor on shift down at the station?"

Judy reached for her phone. "Bogo's more important. And I remember that he hates us calling, but not unless it's for a good reason, which this qualifies as." Quickly scrolling through her contacts list, she reached the number she was looking for. Dialing it, she tapped the speaker icon and set the phone down between her and Fangmeyer.

It didn't take long for Bogo to answer from the other end of the line. _"This better be good, Hopps. You are interrupting a family dinner here."_

"Sir, it's about the two mammals you asked me and Wilde to help the search for," Judy started to explain, "we found them, a coyote and a deer. We also suspect that they are members of the Ocelotian air force."

"_Suspect? Did you make contact with them? Check their identification?"_

"Both of those, sir. Their papers, well, we don't even know if the papers are real or not. Nothing any of us have ever seen before. But they say Ocelotian Air Defense Force on them."

"_Names?"_

"None given. 'TAC' names are shown, but they sound like nicknames more than anything. Address just gives their squadron number."

"_TAC names are radio call signs, Hopps. But I agree, hardly anything bearing any relation to an actual name." _A short pause._ "Is Wilde with you? And what about Wolford and Fangmeyer? Where are the two mammals currently?"_

Judy looked out the window to confirm that Count and Trigger were still watched over by Nick and Wolford. They were.

"I'm here with Hopps, sir," Fangmeyer answered instead, "Wolford and Wilde are with the two mammals, within eyesight of us."

From the phone, they could hear Bogo sigh in frustration. _"You can never make things easy, can you, Hopps? __All right, here's the plan: Take them down to the station and keep them there until tomorrow morning when I will arrive. Patrol officers aren't expected to run into these kinds of situations, so they aren't taught what to do, but there are procedures in place for what to do if something like this does __happen__. __Involves mostly__ a lot of phone calls to feds on my end. But as far as you are concerned, I need to make sure that tomorrow morning, the two mammals will be in the station. Lock them in a cell for all I care, but they are not to leave. Am I understood?"_

"Yes sir," Fangmeyer and Judy both answered.

"_Good. Hopps, I will want to see you and Wilde at the station normal time tomorrow, so if you can, leave the mammals to Wolford and Fangmeyer and go home. You can even keep the cruiser overnight so that you won't need to stop by the station again. If there is nothing else, good night to both of you, and please don't call me again."_

The call ended, leaving the rabbit and tiger in a sudden silence.

Fangmeyer was the first to break it. "Well, that's as a good of a plan as any. Bogo's right, Hopps: grab Wilde and go home, leave the two mammals to Wolford and me. My shift's almost over, but key word _almost, _the two of you had a long day, and no late start tomorrow." She opened the door of the vehicle and stepped out, Judy joining her from the other side. Together, they returned to their partners, standing near their two watchees and chatting quietly.

While Fangmeyer filled Nick and Wolford in, Judy grabbed and held out the papers to return them to their owners. "Count, this one's yours," she said as he rather quickly snatched it from right out of her paw with an angry scowl. "And Trigger-" she hesitated when she held out the coyote's papers in front of him.

Trigger, now little more than his head sticking out from a crumpled pyramid of his reflective thermal blanket, had his eyes closed and was breathing slowly in and out, somehow managing to remain upright and sleeping at the same time.

Considering that mammals normally didn't fall asleep while in police custody like this, Judy immediately felt concern rise up in her. "Uh, Nick, you didn't tranquilize back there by accident, did you?" she asked, looking for the telltale dart despite knowing fully well that she won't find one without looking underneath the silver blanket.

"No, I didn't," came the reply from her partner. "Still got all my darts with me." He even held out his dart gun to prove to her. "Look, Carrots, guy had a very rough couple of days. Can you blame him for wanting to nap?"

Judy had to admit that this was most likely a case where the simplest answer was most likely also the correct one. "I just don't like the idea of him sleeping right after complaining about cold. And considering how wet his uniform is? Might be hypothermia," she eventually muttered, starting to feel foolish at voicing her concern.

Her comment earned her a snort of laughter from Count. "If he gets sick because of this, just letting you know that I'm gonna die from laughter," the deer replied, elbowing Trigger and causing the coyote to nearly stumble off the bench as he woke up with a pained grunt.

"Count! What the hell?" Trigger hissed, eyes alert and scanning the environment around him.

Count grinned back. "Bunny cop was starting to worry about you, dumbass."

"Huh?" The coyote's eyes locked onto Judy's, who smiled shyly in response. She held out his papers once more. "Oh, um, thanks," reaching out through his blanket, he grabbed them and retreated his arm back into the warmth of his metallic cover. He stared off towards one of the two police cruisers as it drove up and pulled over next to them. One of the windows lowered revealing the wolf officer behind the wheel.

"Hate to break up the party, but time for the two of you to hop in," Wolford announced, "just gonna drive you down to the station to have you spend the night in. Tomorrow's going to be the big day for when we figure everything out."

Trigger eyed the car warily. "Does it mean we'll be sleeping in a cell?" The coyote asked.

Wolford replied back with a grimace. "Most likely. Nowhere else available, unfortunately for you." As Fangmeyer opened the back door for Trigger and Count to get in through, he then added, "look, you haven't made this night hard on us so far. Please don't start now. It's not going to do you any good. If you don't argue and just get in, we can also promise no cuffs. Besides, someone still needs to take a closer look at that leg-"

"-I told you, no hospitals!" Count interrupted loudly.

"I know," Wolford said over the deer firmly, "we have someone on staff at the station. Will that work for you?"

Count stood up from the bench and hobbled over to the waiting vehicle. Before sliding in, he stopped to glare at his coyote partner. "Trigger, if we get locked up for this… Especially after Zapland… I _swear_ I'm going to harm you so bad-" He didn't get to finish his sentence as Fangmeyer reached out and pushed his head inside the car, leaving Count no choice but to slide the rest of his body in after.

The tiger turned her attention back to the coyote, still sitting on the bench. "Do you also need to be 'persuaded' in?" Fangmeyer asked with a hint of humor in her voice. Trigger shook his head, slowly getting up and following Count inside the car, thermal blanket and all. Slipping inside, the door was closed gently after him.

With the passengers secured, Fangmeyer took her seat in the passenger side. "Hopps, Wilde!" she called out to the two remaining officers, "see you tomorrow morning! Get some sleep!" As they waved back, she raised the window up as Wolford pulled the car out into traffic. In a matter of seconds, the vehicle turned around a corner and disappeared from view.

Nick stared at the spot where the cruiser was last seen just moments ago. "Well, that was something," the fox muttered. "Gee, what a night."

Judy had to agree with him. "Those two certainly are a pair. I hope they won't give Fangmeyer and Wolford any trouble on the ride back."

"They wouldn't dare," Nick replied with a wicked grin. He glanced over to where their own police car was parked. "What do you say, Fluff, I drive you over to your place and drop you off?"

Judy checked her phone, eyes widening at seeing the time. Feeling some warmth creeping up to the tips of her ears, she muttered, "actually, I was hoping on spending the night over at your place. It's closer, and saves a lot of driving time."

"I guess that could work..." The fox hummed as he thought of having Judy spend the night at his place. "If you don't mind it being a bit on the messier side, and the lack of rabbit food in the fridge, I think I have a spare couch for one of us to bunk on."

"That's fine, I'll take it!" Judy replied back, if a little too quickly. Reaching into a pocket, she produced the keys for their interceptor. "So?" She asked her partner, "Jumping in?"

Nick chuckled as he followed the bunny to the vehicle. "I thought I was the nocturnal one here," he commented.

"That's why you don't want to take your time, so that I won't fall asleep behind the wheel," Judy answered with a grin of her own.

As soon as Nick buckled himself into the passenger seat, she started the engine. Right now, she could really use the several hours of sleep she would be allowed to get tonight. For tomorrow, she decided as she pulled the car onto the road, she's willing to wait for once.

What a night indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Feds get Involved**

The alarm clock went off far too early the next morning, jolting a previously asleep fox into a rude awakening. "Gah, why is it so early?" Nick muttered to himself as he flayed around for the button to shut the noise off. Feeling it, he smashed down on it, glaring at the device with half-opened eyes. The time on the clock told him that he didn't have any time to spare laying about in bed.

Groaning in complaint, he tossed his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, trying to rub away some of the fatigue from his eyes. Nick was never a morning fox, but today was especially hard on him. On a stool next to the bed, he saw a neatly folded pile of clothing that was his uniform for the day. Well, at least a part of him last night remembered to spare him some agony for the morning by preparing part of his routine ahead of time.

Still trying to collect his thoughts, Nick picked up his uniform and headed for the restroom in his apartment, walking into it muzzle first in a dull _thud_ as the handle didn't turn to open the door for him. The fox stumbled back rubbing his nose while wondering why his own bathroom door was locked.

"I'll be ready in a second Nick!" Came Judy's voice from the other side of the door, "Coming right out!"

Nick stared at the door, mind still turning too slowly to comprehend everything. Why had Judy answered him? And was she the reason the door was locked? His gaze was still locked on the handle when it turned, opening the door with it, and revealing a certain bunny behind it.

"Morning, Nick!" Judy announced, smiling brightly, only to chuckle at the fox's appearance in front of her. "Someone's not enjoying their morning," she teased, moving out of the way and nudging him towards the open door. "Come on, get changed so that we won't be late for work!"

Walking inside on autopilot, mind still wondering what Judy was doing in his place and not in hers, Nick was half way done with changing when it all finally clicked together. Oh, right, the extended shift last night happened. By the time they got back to his place, Nick had immediately started to form a bed for the bunny as she got changed for the night. Good thing for them that they kept a minimal change of clothing in a bag inside their police vehicle. The fox also vaguely remembered coming up with the realization that with even less sleep that usual, it would be a smart idea for him to get the uniform ready to put on ahead of time. The rest was still blurry to him, but Nick remembered just enough to recall that as soon as Judy was done preparing for the night, he followed suit with his own pre-bed routine followed by an immediate faceplant into his pillow.

Only for the stupid alarm clock to go off immediately afterwards.

Uniform on, Nick exited his bathroom, nose instantly filling with the smell of fresh if low quality coffee. Wandering into the kitchen like a zombie, he found Judy, standing on one of his chairs to comfortably reach over the counter, pouring a pot of the stuff into two tall thermos cups.

Noticing the fox, Judy finished pouring the drinks and closed the lids on the cups. "I made this with whatever I found in your pantry," she told him, "but something makes me think that you don't care about the taste too much right now." Reaching into her pocket, she took out her phone and looked at the time. "We still have some time to grab breakfast to go if we leave now."

Nick walked over and grabbed one of the two cups, opening the lid and taking in a deep breath of the caffeinated brown watery goodness. "Sounds like a plan to me, Fluff," he replied back, "I don't think you'll approve of cuisine that I have ready to be made in the time we do have left." He looked at his own watch to double check the time. His eyes widened when he saw the result. "How is it this late already?" he whined in complaint, causing Judy to giggle again.

"You completely slept through the first alarm, dumb fox," she told him as an answer.

Nick didn't know how to reply to that one. "Yeah, well, you know that I'm not a morning fox," he finally settled. With Judy's help, he made sure that he had everything that he would need for the day before the two of them left his apartment. Locking his front door, he tried to ignore the cold morning air as he settled into the passenger seat of their interceptor. Holding onto his coffee with both paws to try and warm them up a bit faster, the fox eagerly waited as Judy started the car up for the engine to warm up enough to start blowing warm air into the cabin.

As the bunny drove them in the direction of the precinct one headquarters, he occasionally sipped on the coffee, not really noticing the lack of flavor. As the temperature slowly rose, he took the opportunity to set his coffee down and relax into the seat, closing his eyes. Surely Judy won't mind if he relaxed his eyes for just a little bit…

"Nick! Breakfast!"

The fox snorted awake, nearly toppling his coffee down as he sat up quickly, trying to pretend that he hadn't actually fallen sleep. That was when the enticing smell of the meal filled his nose… Okay, trust Judy to get him a vegetarian sandwich rather than, say, a bug burger, but truth be told, he couldn't complain to her right now. As he took his breakfast, it served the two most important things he wanted out of it: it was warm, and as he bit into it, he knew that it would fill him up for a while. "Thanks, Carrots," he remembered to say in between bites.

If anything, he even felt a pang of guilt over his breakfast. Not only had he fallen asleep in the car, but Judy not only ignored it, but even went and bought breakfast for the two of them. There was no way that she would not have noticed him dozing away after parking the car to buy the sandwiches. He would have to find a way to spot her for this, say lunch, perhaps.

Nick hadn't even noticed where specifically Judy had chosen to stop to buy the meals, but she chose well because he had just enough time to finish the breakfast and sip up the last of his coffee when they arrived at their destination of the precinct one headquarters.

Unlike their normal routine of going in through the front door, the two of them got to enter the building through one of the side doors that connected to the motorpool where Judy left their interceptor. Walking though the familiar halls, in the direction that he would normally go through near the end of the work day rather than the beginning, felt a bit weird for Nick.

A sense of normalcy returned when the duo entered the main lobby of the building, making their way to Clawhauser's desk. The chubby cheetah was already at his post, talking with officer Wolford. Standing next to the wolf, and leaning against the desk for support, Fangmeyer looked even worse off than Nick when it came to trying not to fall asleep. In her free paw, she held as though her life depended on it a large cup of the cheap stuff from the building's kitchen area.

Judy bounded over to her fellow officers, Nick following close behind with far less enthusiasm. "Good morning Ben!" the bunny greeted, hopping up onto a tall stool so that she can be seen from over the desk, "James, Dahlia," she nodded towards her fellow officers from the previous night.

Fangmeyer groaned at the sudden assault of noise to her ears. "Bunnies, so full of energy," she complained, "I am starting to understand your pain, Wilde."

Nick shrugged with pity at the tiger. At least he was used to Judy's boundless morning energy. Plus, that sandwich and coffee really helped out. "Late end yesterday, Fangmeyer?" he asked, wondering why the tiger was looking so tired.

"Early start," the tiger complained, "our shift didn't end that much later than normal, but Bogo made sure to ask us to arrive for the morning brief."

Next to her, Wolford grunted in agreement. "So much like the two of you, our night was wrecked. Figures."

Nick observed the wolf closely. No coffee cup in hand, and yet the wold looked awake enough. "So how did you get yourself up this morning then?" he asked, "inhale coffee grinds straight?"

Wolford shook his head. "Sheer force of will," he answered, "but speaking of coffee, if you all excuse me..." leaving the others behind, the wolf wandered off in the direction of the kitchen.

Judy took the opportunity to get some answers to what she wanted to know before the morning brief was supposed to start. "So Ben, and news on the two mammals from last night?"

Clawhauser blinked at Judy for a few seconds before seemingly realizing what she was asking about. "Oh, _those_ two mammals, I actually don't know," he admitted, "I just know that we have it on file that late last night, a coyote and a whitetail were admitted overnight for holding." As he spoke, he typed away on the keyboard, looking up more information on his computer. "Yeah, sorry, Judy, but nothing's coming up. Only the most basic of files for both." Something interesting caught his eye, causing the cheetah to lean towards the computer monitor to get a better look. "Who goes around with a name like 'Count'?" he asked, as though not believing what he was reading, "and… 'Trigger'? Well that's odd."

Judy giggled at the cheetah's confusion despite herself. "Those are radio callsigns they go by," she explained, "that's the closest we have for names on them. Well, Nick and I left them to James and Dahlia before we got around to asking for their real names." The bunny looked over to the tiger, now curious to see if she had any news on this little mystery.

Fangmeyer simply shrugged as she took a sip from her cup. "We asked, but neither of them wanted to give us any names. Strange, if you ask me, they almost looked ashamed about it when we asked-" the tiger paused, recalling what had gone on in the previous night. "No, Count was angry. Eh, he seems mad at everything, so I don't put much stock into it. Trigger though..." She paused as echoing footsteps announced the return of Wolford, now holding a cup of wake-up juice in each paw.

"Poor pup's looked downright squeamish if you ask me," the wolf completed for Fangmeyer. "I know some mammals have a hard time telling anything about themselves to cops, but I don't think I've seen quite the same reaction as that. Since it was late, we decided to drop the matter." Leaning over, Wolford glanced at the screen on Clawhauser's desk. "So the booking guys didn't get a name out of them either? That's strange."

Making sure that he won't drop his coffee by accident, Wolford motioned towards the bullpen. "Well, I don't know about you lot, but there's a table and chair with my name on it where Bogo's gonna want me to be sitting in soon. Not the worst of places to polish off two cups of brown water." With Fangmeyer in tow, the officers bid Clawhauser a good morning and left for the meeting hall.

Judy didn't watch the two walk off for long. A quick glance at the large clock behind Clawhauser confirmed that there wasn't even that much time left before the morning briefing. "We'd better go too," she told the cheetah, "thanks for the help! Nick?" Grabbing the fox by his tie, and ignoring his protests, she pulled him after Wolford and Fangmeyer into the bullpen. Luckily for him, she needed to let go of him and use both of her paws to open the door.

Inside was the usual rabble of large mammals either sitting and relaxing for the last few minutes of the morning, or chatting amongst themselves or messing about with each other. Fangmeyer and Wolford were sitting next to each other at their allocated seats. The wolf was looking like he was starting to crash hard, drinking one of his two coffees like his life depended on it. Considering what Bogo would do to an officer being caught napping during the briefing, it could be said that his life _really_ did depend on staying awake.

Nick and Judy took their seats in the front of the tables, exchanging pleasantries with their fellow officers as they passed by, but declining any challenges. Judy was infamous for being able to knock out a rhino with a well placed kick, but she knew that even Nick would easily best her in an arm wrestling competition, just as he would be pummeled if he took on, say, officer Johnson the lion. Not that it stopped the larger mammals from constantly inviting them for a friendly game of strength for a good laugh for everyone involved.

For his part, Nick had just enough time to polish off his cup before Officer Higgins entered the room, meaning that Bogo was about to walk in. As usual, the room filled with noise as the large officers pounded on the tables and hollered in welcome to their chief.

The noise died down with one glare from the large buffalo. Snorting in contentment when everyone sat down again, Bogo started the day's brief, reading from his clipboard. "Nothing too interesting today. Word from the MTSB is that they might need a pair of officers or two to finish up hauling out the last of that crashed plane in the harbor. So if you think you lucked out with only one shift of that job, you'll be out of luck." Bogo looked up from his notes towards a tiger officer and a lion. "I'm looking at you, Jackson and Delgato." He then locked gazes with two officers. "Grizzoli and Krumpaski, if they ask for it, you are next in line to help out with the salvage operation." Bogo's eyes returned to his notes. "There was a case of vandalism reported last night. Higgins, you'll be helping our detectives with that one..." The buffalo continued to hand out assignments to the rest of the assembled officers. "...and lastly, Hopps, Wilde, Fangmeyer and Wolford," Bogo looked at his watch to check the time, "my office, fifteen minutes. Dismissed!"

The room filled with noise again as everyone got up at the same time to get on with their assigned tasks for the day. The two pairs of officers that were singled out to be in Bogo's office lingered together while waiting for the time to pass. It didn't take any guessing to know that they were going to have to go over what had happened over the previous night.

Wolford let out a loud yawn, acting rather casual. Normally, officers would be rather scared of having meetings in Bogo's office. "Well, Bogo didn't sound angry, so I don't think we're in trouble or anything," he explained. "I suspect we are going to get a lot of questions answered about last night. Or maybe Bogo would rather get a verbal debrief from us before getting our written reports."

Their conversation was cut short by a new voice from the direction of the main entrance. "Officer Hopps! Officer Judy Hopps!" The owner of the voice turned out to be a white male hare, with unusual black stripes running along his ears. "Agent Jack Savage, ZIA," the hare introduced himself, "you must be Judy Hopps, ZPD's first rabbit officer," the hare suddenly looked nervous, "I'd love to stay and chat for a bit, but I am already running late. I need to meet up with Chief Bogo at his office, but I'm afraid I already got lost after being given the directions by the cheetah at the reception desk."

Judy was automatically curious with talking to a fellow lepordiae who also chose to pursue a career not outside the usual agricultural array, but duty calls when someone asks for help. "Sure, you are quite close, just go this way..." she quickly proceeded to give him the instructions to how to get to Bogo's office, and as soon as she was done, agent Savage was already gone in the blink of an eye.

Nick tilted his head in the direction the hare fled off to. "Well that's one odd fellow. ZIA, he said?"

Fangmeyer grunted in agreement. "Bet you twenty bucks he's gonna be in that office with us."

The fox chuckled but shook his head. "No, no, you see, Fangmeyer, you're doing it wrong. When creating a bet, the odds need to be _unknown, _otherwise there's no fun in the bet. I'm happy with keeping my twenty, thanks. Besides, I'll need it for later." His response earned him another grunt, though one of disapproval, from the tiger.

The four officers continued to talk on and off about various things as they waited for the time to pass. Before not too long, a nearby clock told them that it was time to head up to the office. And sure, while they knew that there was no _logical_ reason to be afraid of the buffalo this time around, there was always that carnal fear that came with heading up to Bogo's office. After all, there were only ever two reasons to be summoned there: either something important needed to be discussed in private, or far more often, you messed up bad and needed disciplining. For all four officers, at least a part of them was telling them that they somehow did something wrong last night, and Bogo was going to skin them alive for it. One can never tell with the Chief.

Well, there was no point in delaying, unless they wanted to actually make the buffalo mad. As the most senior officer, Fangmeyer was the one who knocked on the door.

The reply was instant. "Enter!" Opening the door, the four officers entered the room. Bogo barely glanced at them at they came in. "Pick a seat, but leave the middle to chairs empty," he instructed. "Officers, meet agent Jack Savage, ZIA. He will be representing the federal government while we figure out what to do with what I presume to be his jurisdiction. Am I right?" Savage gave a quick nod. "Savage, these four officers were the ones involved with apprehending yesterday's two arrivals."

As the four officers sat down, they nodded in greeting at the hare. "We bumped into him just outside your office," Judy commented, not earning a reply from Bogo.

With everyone settled, the buffalo took some papers on his desk and glanced over them. "Officers, if you would be kind enough, I would appreciate it if you will run down the events of last night that lead to the apprehension of the coyote and deer. This isn't a formal debrief, but will greatly help later today in getting things moving. So please, don't leave anything out." It was hard not to notice that next to the papers on his desk sat a familiar gun, disassembled, but still very much recognizable. "Agent Savage, if you will have any questions, try to save them for the end, if you may."

The hare nodded, but also spoke to add in a brief introduction of his own. "Thank you, Chief Bogo. While I am not normally the best person to be involved in such matters, I am qualified enough to oversee this meeting, and more importantly, was available to show up on a short notice. However, I will remain in contact with others in the agency, communicating with them on my phone throughout the meeting. So if you are talking and see me typing away on it, do continue, and don't think that I am ignoring you, for I will still be listening. If all goes well, Chief, I imagine that we will have a plan of action on what to do with the two mammals. Also, while I can, I would like to preemptively thank you on behalf of the agency for taking initiative with the two mammals." His phone sat on top of a note pad, pen at ready, on Savage's knees. Glancing at the screen, the hare nodded at whatever he read it. "I believe we are ready to begin," he announced simply. "So first thing would be if you can give me a rundown of the events of how you caught the mammals."

Fangmeyer cleared her throat. "I guess I'll start since Officer Wolford and I were the ones who were originally tasked with investigating a series of reports about a pair of suspicious mammals in the Rainforest district..." She proceeded to tell how she and Wolford would try to approach the two mammals once they were initially found, only to have trouble actually getting close. Wolford occasionally interrupted to add in a detail or two if the tiger missed a point.

Bogo, for his part, remained silent as the officers told the events that transpired the previous night. The only time he spoke was right before Nick and Judy started to talk where they got involved with the search. Reaching for the small microphone on his desk, the chief spoke into it quietly. "McHorn, bring them in, thirty minutes, my office. Might need to wait a bit, so don't hurry it."

With the interruption out of the way, the recount of events continued. Judy stumbled a bit when she got to the part where she found herself staring at the business end of a gun, but a quick glance at the device on Bogo's desk convinced her to just metaphorically bite the bullet and continue on without trying to hide the fact. That being said, she also noticed how when she got to that part, Nick was suddenly looking at her with not an insignificant amount of concern on his muzzle. This was in part why she made sure to add that, "I am fully confident that even if officer Wilde had not arrived when he did, nor the coyote, for that matter, that should I have needed to, I would have been able to disarm the deer by myself."

Feeling that this would be sufficient to diffuse any immediate concerns, she continued to recall the events. When she got to the part where Nick tackled Trigger in an an ambush, Judy could have almost sworn that she saw a hint of a grin escape the corner of Bogo's mouth, but it disappeared as soon as she blinked. It didn't take long to reach the end where Fangmeyer was able to take over again. And when the tiger finished with the booking of the two mammals, a brief moment of silence remained in the room when the talking ended.

As the most important mammal in the room, Bogo spoke first. "On my end, until written documentation is submitted, I can say that from what little I had time for in listening to the recordings of the appropriate radio communications, I can corroborate to what you have just been told. Considering that, agent Savage, do you have any questions for the officers?"

The hare looked down at his notes. "Officers, you decided that it would be best to split up in a location with very limited mobility and even less visibility. What lead to such a decision?"

Bogo responded before any of the four beat cops could. "Agent, I would appreciate it if your questions remained on topic to what would be applicable to your jurisdiction. My officers' methodology doesn't fall under that category. So, officers, if you do not feel comfortable answering that question, you may ignore it."

Fangmeyer raiser her paws up in a harmless position. "It's all right, sir, I'll answer it. The main reason we decided to split up was that we had no reason to expect hostility from the mammals. For many hours, they proved to us that they knew that they were being followed, and never had they shown any hostility, only a strong ability to lose us repeatedly. This was also our main reason for requesting backup: it was never to get more firepower on scene, but rather just to get more paws on the ground to close off escape routs."

Savage hummed as he looked down at his notes again. "But did you suspect that they might have turned hostile if they got cornered? I am choosing to ignore what happened when Hopps made first contact, and am asking about the decision process before that."

"I understand that, sir," Fangmeyer replied, "at one point, several hours prior to first contact, Officer Wolford and I did have them cornered at a dead-end street. They only got away by jumping into a fast-current canal nearby. If they were ready to fight, why risk their lives trying to escape?"

The hare nodded at the answer he got. "Very well. If I may, I have done field work myself, so I can assure you that I am aware of the benefits of hindsight over the in-the-moment thinking officers such as yourself have to do on a regular basis. I asked this question to get a better understanding of your assessment of the two mammals, and not to judge your performance as police officers. Moving on, Chief Bogo, I have a question directed at you, if I may ask it?" Bogo gave a nod, so Savage proceeded with his question. "I am under the impression that you were not too surprised when the two mammals were reported as potential pilots of a foreign nation. What clued you in as to their identity?"

The buffalo, before replying right away, took a few moments to shuffle through the stack of papers on his desk, pulling two out and handing them over to agent Savage. "The infrastructure in the city of Zootopia is incredibly complex, often described as a modern Wonder of the World. However, with all its moving parts and components, sections fail. All the time. For the vast majority, it's just expected end of life behavior for weak components. Sprinklers failing, small pipes leaking, things like that. Also as expected for such a system, mammals tend to get a good laugh out of seeking to destroy it. While stopping a plot to blow up a section of the climate wall might make national news, what you don't hear about even locally are the countless of acts of vandalism and hooliganism that go on all the time. A group of drunken teenagers betting on who can knock out a sprinkler with a tossed rock, a curious onlooker wondering what will happen if they plug a sand blower in Sahara Square, things like that. When repair crews check on a failed section, they send me a report if they suspect foul play. Most of the time, it's just paperwork clutter: if the mammals responsible weren't caught right away, it's just not worth the cost to investigate and try to catch and deal with every single incident. The city simply repairs the damage and tries to fine those who do get caught to try and offset some of the costs. The rest is covered by taxes, both local and federal."

Chief Bogo motioned at the papers he handed over to agent Savage. "But occasionally, I even get a report that is worth paying attention to. The same day as the airplane crash, I got two. It was only a couple of hours after the crash that I received these two reports for damage inspection on the climate control system. One, a water sprinkler in the Rainforest District was knocked out of commission. The other, a complete blockage of a snow distributor in Tundra Town. Even with the timing after the crash, it was nothing out of the ordinary: these things happen all the time. But what was unusual was the cause: Both incidents were caused by contact of large canvas materials, revealed to be parachutes upon closer inspection. Matching the type used by Ocelotian air force pilots in the event of a bailout. That gave me a very strong suspicion that we should be on the lookout for survivors of the crash. So when reports came in about a pair of suspicious mammals, I couldn't simply bet everything on them being the survivors, but I did have my suspicions. Does that answer your question sufficiently?"

Agent Savage read over the two reports, using the end of Bogo's short speech to organize his thoughts. "Yes, Chief Bogo, that would suffice," he replied. He then motioned at the gun sitting on the desk. "A quick question this time: This rifle, which I can confirm is a standard issue personal defense weapon for vehicle crews in the Ocelotian military, is the deer's. Did the coyote also have one of his own?"

Bogo shook his head. "No other weapons were recovered from either one of them. Nor, I can add, were any weapons recovered in either of the two locations where the parachutes were found. When we booked the two mammals into the precinct, they were checked for personal belongings as well. Neither one had anything more significant than their identification papers, which leads me to the conclusion that they either hid their gear prior to our contact with them, or they dropped down onto Zootopia without anything." The buffalo glanced at the gun components. "Apart from this. Would most likely be a better question to ask them in person, agent, assuming they will cooperate."

Savage typed some things on his phone, only pausing briefly to wait for replies from whoever was on the other end. It was during this lull in the conversation that a sharp knock from the other side of the door was heard.

Bogo glared at the door in an almost automatic fashion. "Just a minute!" he called out.

Agent Savage set his phone down on the pad again. "I believe I only have one more question before we bring them inside," he said, "when the two mammals were brought in to this station, were they interrogated in any shape or form?"

Fangmeyer gulped nervously. "Well, no, we didn't, sir," she muttered with some hesitation, "we expedited booking them into the station and placed them in a cell for the night. Last I or Officer Wolford saw them, no one interrogated them even informally."

Eyes on his phone, Savage asked, "not even during the drive over to the station?"

"No sir," Fangmeyer replied again. "The coyote slept through the whole ride back. The deer was awake, but never spoke to either of us. Whenever we tried to talk to him, he would just glare back at us, so we didn't try too hard to converse with him."

The hare nodded. "No worries, officer. Like I said, I am not here to judge you on your performance. I just want to get an understanding of the events."

Fangmeyer gave a slight grin. "I understand, sir."

Finally glancing up away from the phone screen, agent Savage nodded at Chief Bogo. "I feel we can conclude this portion of the meeting, Chief. Let's invite the two mammals in and see what they have to say. Agreed?"

Bogo looked at his officers to see if they had any objections with moving forward with the meeting. When non of them spoke up, he glanced at the door again. "Bring them in!"

The door opened, revealing a trio of Count, Trigger, and officer McHorn towering behind both of them. A quick snort from the large officer's nostrils was all it took to push the two smaller mammals into the room.

Bogo was wearing his usual glare as he stared at the two 'guests'. Motioning at the two empty chairs facing his desk with a hoof, he eyed the two mammals, visually daring them to ignore him. "Have a seat," he ordered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Bad News for Bogo**

Count and Trigger shuffled into the room, slowly sitting down into the available chairs. Both of them were no longer wearing the flight suits that they were last seen in, having replaced them with spare ZPD gear found in the station.

Count somehow got lucky with his shirt, which fit snugly around his surprisingly muscular frame. But then again, if he was in a fighter squadron, it would only make sense that the deer would be in good shape. His only slightly-too-large pants hid his leg wound from the previous night, with the bottom of the pant legs disappearing inside the dark black boots both the dear and coyote were wearing. Even the angry scowl on the deer's muzzle appeared to be a permanent fixture of Count's.

Trigger didn't get so lucky with his change of clothes. While his lower half fit all right, the shirt he got clearly belonged to the batch given out to the wolf officers, and was several sizes too large for the coyote's smaller frame. The short sleeves almost made their way completely down his arms, for example, and Trigger only managed to keep the whole thing from dropping like a dress by not so much tucking as much as shoving the excess material down his waistline. Though if the coyote found the arrangement uncomfortable, he didn't voice his complaints. A small white bandage was stuck just above one of his eyes, a reminder of his introduction to Officer Wilde.

After giving everyone in the room an opportunity to look over each other, Chief Bogo again cleared his throat loudly to draw everyone's attention. "Now that our two mystery mammals have joined us, I'm just going to very quickly make sure you all know who everyone here is. The four officers you already met last night. If you forgot their names, I don't care." Bogo motioned at himself. "I am Chief of Police Adrian Bogo, and you are currently in my station." He then motioned at Savage. "The new hare's agent Jack Savage of the ZIA. He's the one you two will need to pay attention to the most."

Count scoffed. "Great, an Animalian spook. Anyone else you want to throw at us while you can?"

Bogo glared daggers at the deer. "Quiet!" he ordered, "neither one of you are allowed to speak unless asked a direct question. And no, you are not in a position to negotiate about it. Am I understood?"

Count threw a lazy salute at the buffalo. "Sure thing, boss," he replied, smirking at seeing just how much Bogo had to exercise restraint not to sucker punch the deer into silence. One seat over, Trigger, for his part, didn't say anything, choosing to stare at Count as though he was looking at a live hand grenade ready to blow. Then again, with the way the deer was acting right now, and with Bogo in the same room, the tension in the air could most likely spontaneously produce high explosive and set it off at any moment. Even Wilde looked like he had already reconsidered all of his sassy remarks.

Letting out a breath slowly, Bogo forced himself to calm down. "Don't think that just because I lack jurisdiction over you that you can mouth off, _deer_," he said coldly, "I can make your life a living _hell_ while you remain in my station, and if you give him a reason to, I am sure Savage will take his sweet time transferring you out to wherever you will be sent to out of here. Am I right, Savage?"

The hare was busy looking at the screen on his phone, but his large ears were swiveled in Bogo's direction. "What, you mean taking my time and not having to rush paperwork? Just give me the word, Chief!"

Nick grinned at this response. Jack was perhaps not completely boring after all!

Bogo snorted as his glare finally won Count over, who shank back in his chair, though still with a defiant glare back at the buffalo. "Since this is going to be mostly your show, Savage, you can might as well start it off if you don't mind."

Agent Savage set his phone down on the pad, letting out a quick sigh to gather his thoughts. "Don't think I'll mind that, Bogo," he said, "very well. Before the two of you entered this office just now, the officers here gave me a run down of the events that happened last night. Of course, there are gaps and missing information in there that I would like to have." Taking a good long look at the two mammals, Savage continued. "I already told the officers when the meeting with them started, but this is an unofficial meeting. While it is being recorded, since the two of you don't identify as civilians, and neither of you are currently on trial, you do not get the benefit of having a lawyer to represent you. And even if there will be a trial, that would be done through a military tribunal, not the civilian courts. Despite that, we all would appreciate your cooperation while being question, as it will allow us to faster determine how to best deal with you. You heard Bogo: be a pain in our behinds, and we can, and _will_, make sure that your time in Animalia is going to be miserable. Do I make myself clear?" Despite both of them being larger than Savage, Count and Trigger simply nodded in response, but the angry glare from Count was already looking troublesome. Deciding that he wasn't going to wait for a verbal answer, the hare nodded in return. "Good. So to start things off, why not go to the very beginning: the airplane crash. What happened?"

While Trigger opened his mouth to speak, it was Count who beat him to the punch. "Transport blew up while we were inside. What else do you expect an aircraft to do when part of it blows up?" the deer answered with a sneer.

"_Silence_!" The heavy fists of Bogo's hitting the hard wooden surface of the desk created a loud thud which permeated the room, emphasizing the command from the chief. "If you do not wish to cooperate with us, then very well, we won't either. You are free to get up and walk _your ass back to a cell_!"

Nick glanced nervously at Judy, who shared the look of concern with him. While it was completely naive to think that chief Bogo didn't know colorful language, it was surprisingly rare to actually hear him curse. It was one sign that the buffalo was genuinely reaching the limits of his patience with Count.

So it was rather surprising to hear Trigger speak, despite not actually being asked to do so. Even more, despite not raising his voice, the coyote managed to silence the entire room. "Count, just this once, can you please not antagonize everyone? We're not dealing with McKinsey here."

Count scoffed at his companion. "And what good will that do, Trigger? Stop being a pushover and think about it: _I don't want to spend god knows how many years in a POW camp!_" Bogo opened his mouth to end the argument there and now, but the shaking of the head from agent Savage of all mammals stopped the buffalo from following through. Communicating with just a glance, Savage told all he needed to: this was something for Count and Trigger to settle before the meeting can continue.

"But this is a neutral country!" Trigger tried to argue back against Count.

"Exactly my point!" The deer shot back, voice filled with a smug sense of victory. "You think they are going to allow us to just go back? They _can't_! The best they can do is throw us into some rotting hole somewhere until the war ends. No trial, no hearings, no _nothing_! And since that's the only thing they are allowed to do to us, I don't see the point of telling them anything. At least if I keep my mouth shut, I won't be court-martialed for spilling some secrets when we do get sent back. Just something you might want to think about, _Trigger._"

The coyote stared at the floor, eyes narrowed as he say there, deep in thought. For far too many tense moments, the only noise to be generated in the room was the soft tapping as Savage continued to communicate on his phone, almost seemingly in his own second little world while no one else dared to talk in fear of igniting the powder keg that was the pent up emotion in the office. Eventually, Trigger spoke. "Damn it, but I think you're right, Count," he relented quietly, though there was no need to talk loudly: everyone could hear him well enough. Eyes looking up from the floor, he scanned the office, trying to find who best to talk directly too. "Count is right," he repeated, "international law is clear about what happens when war combatants are caught by a neutral power... Even if we were somehow so important that we were sent back to Ocelotia right away, that would violate Animalia's neutrality in the war, angering Urusia in the process. Which could easily lead to an escalation if Urusia decides that such an action would deem Animalia to no longer be a neutral party. No politician would ever dare to allow that, not even if it was to return their own mother, let alone two random pilots from a foreign country." Trigger's now angry eyes locked onto the back of Savage's head, only after which the hare seemed to realize that it might be a good idea to look up away from the phone. "Tell me where I am wrong here, _agent_. And if I am correct, then again, Count is right: we're going to be better off keeping our mouths shut. Dro- place us where ever you feel like, no matter how terrible it would be for us, but we won't talk. At least when locked in some rotting hellhole, international law also understands that it would be our responsibility to try to escape, so we'll at least have something to do. So I ask again, agent… Savage, was it? Is my reasoning wrong?"

The hare stared between the coyote and the deer. "Well, no," he answered bluntly. Trigger sank back into his chair, defiant spark gone from his gaze, now replaced by a simple blank stare. Count was simply shaking his head slowly back and forth. Savage quickly glanced down at his phone before he spoke again. "And even then, I would still ask that the two of you answer our questions. I understand that you are not allowed to reveal classified information, but you never know what you might tell us and how it might end up helping you. But..." he held up his phone, "if you give me a couple of minutes, the answer about your reasoning might change. Up to you if you want to wait or not."

Trigger gave a small grin, though it came out far more of a pained grimace. "It's not like we have anywhere else to be. Count?" The deer simply shrugged in response. With a sigh, the coyote went back to staring at the ground in front of him, gaze intense in thought.

Jack nodded his head. "Very well, let's wait and see what will happen here. In the meantime, would it be all right if we can get some bottles of water into this room, officers? I fear we might be in here for longer than I originally imagined." He glanced up at Bogo, visually asking with his gaze the same question.

The chief glanced at the officers in the room, now seemingly far more calm with the immediate crisis in the room averted. "All right," he agreed with Savage, "Hopps, Wilde, if you don't mind?"

Quietly, Nick and Judy got up and left the room. Heading down to the precinct's kitchen, it was hard not to notice the occasional stare at them from other officers. As the two of them started grabbing bottles from the refrigerator, one such officer, a lioness dressed in formal casual office wear and grabbing a drink of her own, even felt brave enough to voice her opinion though.

"We heard shouting from Bogo's office. Everything all right up there?" Despite being far enough away from the office, and at least a floor and one thick closed door between them and the occupants still inside, the lioness spoke in barely a whisper, paranoid that Bogo might still hear them.

Nick grinned at the question. "Ah, you mean Benny's heard something from the front desk again?" It's sometimes really amazing just how quickly Clawhauser can spread word around the building. "Well-"

"-We don't know yet," Judy finished for him. "No one's in any trouble yet. Come on Nick, let's bring these back upstairs."

The fox flashed pistol fingers at the lioness as he followed the bunny back to Bogo's office. Though as they came up to the large door, all playfulness vanished from his muzzle. There was no telling what will happen inside in the near future. Slipping inside, the pair handed out the bottles to the other occupants of the room before returning to their seats. Count drank his water eagerly, while Trigger hardly seemed to notice the bottle that was placed on his chair next to him, still staring at the ground like he had when Nick and Judy had left the room. That had been, what, five minutes ago?

Agent Savage was still on his phone, frowning at the screen as he continued to exchange messages with whoever was on the other end. It was a quiet reaction from the hare to a received message that woke the coyote up from his frozen trance.

"Who are you even talking to, agent?" Trigger asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Savage looked up from his phone.

"Who are you communicating with on the other side of the screen?" Trigger elaborated.

Savage frowned again, making sure that Trigger wasn't able to see the screen. Not that it mattered – the text that covered the screen was far too small for the coyote to make out from where he sat. Still, it never hurts to make sure. "I'm not at liberty to say, but let me phrase it this way: someone important enough to make decisions._" _Savage pointed at Trigger and Count. "_Large_ decisions. That will effect both of yours immediate future. So if you excuse me..." The hare went back to communicating on his phone, leaving the others to ponder in silence once more.

Count casually played with his new bottle, twirling it in the air and catching it on its way down.

Bogo glared at the deer, but didn't actually say anything to make him stop.

Trigger went back to once again glaring at the floor in front of him.

Wilde looked ready to start falling asleep again, clearly fighting the urge to nap right in front of his boss. Hopps was ready to rescue him from slumber at the slightest hint of a snore.

And then, Savage broke the silence once more. "Okay! Now we're getting somewhere!" He sounded rather excited at whatever the phone told him. "This might take a bit more time to finalize, but I think I can see where this is going. Might as well restart the meeting then."

Count grinned. "Great! So you can tell us if we're going to be locked up and starved in some dump in the middle of some desert or not."

Savage didn't return the grin. "Uh, no. That's not how that works," he told the deer.

Count's grin turned into a frown. "So we _are_ being sent to a camp." He said accusingly.

The hare let out an irritated sigh. "No, that's not what I am saying. If you could just… _listen_ for just one second, I can explain!" The deer threw his hoofs up into the air, signaling that he was allowing Savage to continue. "Thank you," Jack muttered, his voice filled with sarcasm. He glanced yet again at his phone, but seemed to change his mind at whatever he wanted to do next. "Tell you guys what, since I still need to wait on a bit more for the information to arrive," he let out a sigh, looking over Count and Trigger. "I feel that perhaps, we might have started off on the wrong foot here. So for the next several minutes, if you don't mind, why don't we start over again? Bogo? Officers?"

Most of the eyes in the room traveled over to the chief, who didn't look very amused at having everyone's attention again. "If you feel it worthwhile, you may proceed," he said eventually, before giving a strong glare at Count and Trigger, especially at Count. "But keep it _civil_. I won't hesitate to lock you up for as long as I can if you won't behave yourselves." The two mammals didn't say anything, though Count even managed to nod his head slightly. "Good. Savage?"

Jack smiled a little. "Well, if we're going to start again, why not from the very beginning? Now, at the risk of making this sound like the first day of summer camp, if we can go around and introduce ourselves? Some of us here are, naturally, less familiar with each other than others, and I am hoping that this will melt some of the ice, so to speak. I guess then that starting with me... My name is Jack Savage. I am a mountain hare, and I work as an analyst for the ZIA. As this being my first time visiting this building, I am not the only one meeting new faces today." He motioned at the next mammal in line, Officer Wolford. "Oh, and uh, let's save the questions for later, as not to get off tangent again."

The wolf officer spoke up as soon as Jack finished talking. "I'm James Wolford, gray wolf, police officer in the ZPD." He hesitated for a brief second, then added in, "I'm familiar with the officers here and Chief Bogo, but not the rest of you."

Fangmeyer was next. "Dahlia Fangmeyer, a tiger. Also officer in the ZPD." She didn't elaborate any further.

Then it was Trigger's turn, who didn't look happy to be next. It took him several seconds to organize his thoughts. "Pilot in the 444th fighter squadron, Ocelotian Air Defense Force," he said, earning a few curious looks at his answer. "Species, coyote... Rank not important, and name… just call me Trigger."

Bogo looked like he was ready to complain, but Jack cut him off. "We'll take it. Remember, this isn't an interrogation, and I only want everyone here to be comfortable. Trigger answered as he wanted to, and we'll just have to accept it for now, all right? So, next?"

Count's turn. He spoke quickly to get away from being the one talking as quickly as possible. "Name's Count. Other information is the same as Trigger's." He realized an error and hurried in an, "Except that I'm a whitetail deer, that's not the same."

He metaphorically passed the baton to Judy.

"I'm officer Judy Hopps of the ZPD," she replied, tone formal and professional, "common rabbit, and, yes, I think I'll leave it at that for now."

Nick went next. "Nicholas Wilde, though I prefer Nick. The fourth police officer with the ZPD in this room. In case it's not obvious, but I am a red fox."

"Can it, Wilde!" Bogo ordered, before taking his own turn. "Chief of police for ZPD's precinct 1, Adrian Bogo. Cape Buffalo." He gave another quick glance at the room. "That's everyone here, agent, so if you wish to continue?"

Jack nodded in agreement. "Now that we have all introduced ourselves in a far more polite manner than tackling each other," he looked at Nick, "or worse, with firearms," he watched Count, "I want to just give a quick rundown of the situation as it currently stands, and where it is expected to go." Checking the clock on the wall to make sure that he had enough time, he started with his explanation. "Starting with information that I hope is not new to any of us, early into the night two days ago an aircraft went down over this city, narrowly avoiding crashing into the city itself and instead hitting open water only about a mile off shore from our harbors. Up until it went down, the aircraft was in communication with our own air traffic controllers and following standard established international flight protocols. However..." Savage looked down not at his phone, but at his notes. "Animalia allowed the flight to happen under the understanding that it was a civilian flight, not involved with the war between Ocelotia and Urusia. Except that this doesn't look to be the case, does it?" When he glanced at Count and Trigger, the deer grinned back.

"Don't look at us, we didn't fly the plane." Count said smugly. "Whatever politics are involved, they didn't include us."

Jack acted almost like he didn't hear the retort. "Yes, well, I am not even sure if it would have made things easier or harder for us if you had been the ones flying. However, back to the situation: we have two survivors. Not civilian, but military. On a flight that officially wasn't. Which is why I requested this meeting." Looking at the two pilots, then at Bogo, Savage wearily watched the chief. "Bogo, sir, I do with to emphasize that what I am about tell you came from above me, and I am only the messenger because you are not going to like it."

Bogo let out a slight groan of annoyance. "Hopps, you just had to get involved with this, didn't you? I swear, everything you touch gets blown up somehow. Savage, if you want, blame her."

Judy grinned back at her boss, looking quite embarrassed. "Sorry sir, I was only doing my job."

A sigh came from Bogo. "I know, which is the worst thing about it. Agent?"

"How to be explain it?" Jack sounded rather nervous at delivering the news. "Normally, yes, Trigger and Count would be correct in that, were they were part of a military flight and captured by us, international neutrality laws would mean that we would have to keep them for as long as their war continues. But since we initially thought they were part of a civilian flight, some politicians and lawyers upstairs felt that this would provide them with the perfect opportunity to play about with this situation." Savage was already rather formal, but now his tone took on a somewhat threatening and serious one. "This information will most likely need to be issued out to the rest of your precinct, Bogo, which is why I was authorized to repeat this with your officers, and Count and Trigger, present. But be aware that if this leaks out, it _will_ weigh over your head, and no, there's nothing I can do about it. The plan? Keep them here."

"Oh please! Spare me!" While Count was the one to voice his displeasure the most, he wasn't the only one looking angered by the news. Wilde was laughing at the raw audacity of the situation. Wolford and Fangmeyer were also complaining, arguing against the logistics of housing two mammals in the precinct.

Judy also added her own two cents. "Isn't that illegal?"

Bogo had to regain control of his office. "Everyone quiet down! Savage, you have two seconds: Explain what in the world is going on!"

Jack held up his phone for the others to see it, but not necessarily to read. "Let me remind you all that I am only a liaison right now!" he complained, "I wasn't the one who thought this up! But word from up high is that because for now, Count and Trigger are to be treated as civilian survivors. No one confirmed it, but I've worked in the ZIA long enough to smell a plot when I see one. My best guess is that by pretending that we have two civilian survivors rather than prisoners of war, that Ocelotia will be willing to complete some kind of deal that will benefit Animalia. Yes, it will all be done under the table with all of the usual secrecy and deniability nonsense, but again, I stress, it's not going to be up to me." Quickly scrolling through the phone, Jack quickly found what he was looking for. "I'm going to quote exactly what was sent to me. 'Since the two mammals are currently in police custody, make sure that they are to remain there. They will be allowed certain freedoms, to be determined, as long as they sign written oaths to maintain secrecy of their identity, to be punished as unlawful combatants should they break the oath'."

Count wearily watched the agent. "What kind of 'freedoms'?" he asked.

"I don't know," Jack replied swiftly, "I just told you: 'to be determined'. Most likely, you might be allowed to go out into the city. Monitored at all times by the ZPD, I am sure."

Bogo snorted in anger. "And why am I supposed to use my officers' time and energy, which I might add should be used to serve the city, for this Byzantine game some politician decided to start over us? And what if this goes sour? Am I going to have to ask some of my officers to resign, over a task that they are not even supposed to be performing? I will not allow this!"

"I'm truly sorry," Jack, to his credit, sounded like he even meant it. "but it's not up to me." he glanced at his watch. "Oh, it's already past noon. Officers, if you wouldn't mind taking our two… 'guests' for a bite, I want to stay with Chief Bogo hear and make a phone call to my superiors. I want to clear this out before the end of the day. Chief?"

"Only if I am going to be allowed to argue my case," Bogo said cautiously, "I am not going to risk the ZPD over this foolishness, though I fear that it has already been decided for us."

"I will try to argue your point of view and make them understand," Savage answered, "though I'm afraid I can't make any promises."

For the first time since when everyone reintroduced themselves, Trigger spoke up. "This isn't right," he muttered, "we shouldn't be the cause of a stupid political stunt like this. It's not worth the risk."

Bogo watched the pilot for a moment. "I appreciate your concern, but the two of you have the least ability to do anything about it in this case." He motioned at the door. "Officers, take Count and Trigger downstairs. You have permission to call in some food, and bill it to the department. I'll have Clawhauser tell you when it will be time to get back in here. Savage, make that call."

The four police officers stood up, taking the pilots with them. As the door closed behind them, Bogo let out a groan of misery. "And this, Savage, is why I chose to serve the city, and not the fed." He reached out and grabbed the parts of the gun still on his desk, sticking them inside a large drawer. From a different drawer, he took out a large bowl filled with greens. "If I'm going to be miserable for the rest of the day, might as well not be hungry on top of it," he explained, "want some? I usually keep extra for situations such as this one when I need to keep someone in for longer than expected."

Jack eyed the greens with a rather hungry look. "Don't mind if I do, thanks." As he waited for Bogo split a portion off to him onto a paper plate, he sent a message on the phone, then with a quick glance to confirm the action with Bogo, pressed the call button.

One way or the other, he doubted he would be leaving the office before the mess would be sorted.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Stories Shared**

An unoccupied conference room was chosen as the suitable place to wait out the time in relative privacy and comfort. Fangmeyer and Wolford left to pick up lunch from a fast food joint down the street from the station, leaving Nick and Judy to watch over Count and Trigger. Despite the large table in the room with more than enough chairs for everyone, the coyote chose to pull out a chair and place it down besides the room's window, leaning his elbow on the windowsill as he stared outside.

Count, for his part, chose the more practical option of simply occupying a chair on the other side of the table from where Nick and Judy chose their seats. Knowing that the officers' eyes were on him, the deer flashed them a grin. "You know, this sucks," he suddenly said, "how much do you want to bet that whatever arrangement is going to be made, neither one of us here will like it?"

Nick, for his part, returned the grin with his trademark hustler's smirk. "Are you betting that one of us gets what they want? Hand the cash over, buddy." He smirked when Judy shot him an angry glare. "Don't look at me like that, Fluff. Unless I actually make a bet, I'm not violating the precinct's 'no gambling' policy." When she huffed at him in annoyance, he addressed Count again. "So, what do you say? Up for it?"

The deer played along with Nick's rebuttal. "Nah, I'll pass. Don't mind splitting the profits with you though!" He turned to his fellow pilot. "Hey, Trigger? What about you? Willing to put up a bet on the outcome of the meeting upstairs?"

"Hmm?" Trigger only seemed to realize that he was spoken to after Count had already stopped asking the question. And even then, the only other indicator that he was paying any attention to the rest of the room was by swiveling his ears to point more in the correct direction. Otherwise, his gaze was still very much locked out the window.

"I asked, what do you think the guys upstairs are going to end up choosing? Something at least one of us likes, or something we will all hate?" When Trigger again didn't reply, Count tried again. "Yo, Three Strikes? Awake over there?" This time, Trigger must have heard the question, because he lowered his ears at the noise, but when he still didn't answer, Count shrugged and turned away. "I tried," he told Nick. "You can keep your cash."

Nick mimicked picking up a stack of bills from the table and putting them into his pocket. "Gee, thanks for your generosity!"

Judy was eyeing Count curiously. "What did you just call Trigger? Why 'Three Strikes'?" For a moment, she swore that she saw a hint of fear flicker across Count's eyes before the deer relaxed back into his chair and pulled out his identification papers from the night before. "Remember how I have a line across my picture?" He showed the image to Judy, who simply nodded in turn. It was still the same picture that she saw already, so there was nothing actually new about it. Counted folded the papers back before returning them to his pocket. "Trigger has three. 'Three Strikes, as you were."

The bunny thought about it. "So what do the lines even mean then?"

Count was about to reply, but it was Trigger who beat him to it.

"Nothing you would care about," the coyote muttered gruffly, "so mind your own business!"

Count grinned slightly at Nick and Judy. "Don't mind him, he gets like that when someone asks about the lines," he explained, "It's a… 444 squadron kind of deal. Everyone's got lines. We're a fighter squadron, and those lines get added to the vertical stabilizers as identification markers. Most pilots there, like me, have one. Some have two. Trigger's the only one with three, so you can imagine that he stands out." He quickly motioned in Trigger's direction. "But seriously, don't ask him about the lines.

Judy was confused there. "Wait so are they lines, or 'strikes'? And, forgive me for my ignorance, but you said 'vertical -'?"

Count laughed. "Tails, bunny, tails! Planes have 'em too!" He didn't go into any further details about the three lines, nor did he really have the chance to as the door to the room opened next to them.

Fangmeyer and Wolford walked in, arms loaded with several bags of food.

"Lunch is here!" Wolford announced. "We've got everything: Plants, bugs, even some fish and poultry if you're into that stuff." When he saw that Trigger wasn't sitting at the table with the others, he called out "Trigger! Quit moping about by the window and join us! How does a nice hearty, completely unhealthy lunch sound? When was it even that you ate last?" The coyote finally was able to tear himself away from staring outside, and with an annoyed sigh, sat down on the same side of the table as Count, though still close to the window rather than next to the deer.

Judy in the meantime eyed the food with disdain. "Ugh, _Bug-Burga_, seriously, Fangmeyer? There wasn't anything better than this junk? Wolford, you too? You ought to know better than _this_."

Her reaction only brought laughter from the Tiger. "You wanted to wait an additional who knows how long to get something slightly better? I would rather be called back up with a full stomach rather than an empty one," she teased, "besides, Bug-Burga is the closest establishment that I know off the top of my head that has something for everyone. I'm a Tiger – we need our meat protein. Just as you and Count don't. Unless he wants to eat crickets or fish."

Count, for his part, was already grabbing one of the vegetarian meals and tearing it open, grinning widely at the smells coming from the food. "Me? Meat? No thanks, but you have to give it to Bug-Burga – they know how to make something for anyone!" Finally getting to his burger, he bit into it, just about positively moaning in delight at the flavor. "Oh, how I missed this. So much better than the waste they would give us back at base!" He continued to eat his burger with his eyes closed and a childlike smile of delight in between bites.

Nick also dug into his own burger, purposely making sure that the smells from his meat went into Judy's direction. "You really need to learn how to relax and enjoy life, Carrots," he teased, "what's the point of living a long, healthy life if you don't enjoy it?" Delicately, he pinched out a bit from his burger and brought it over to Judy's direction. "You can start with trying this bit of delicious, greasy cricket. Yummy!"

Judy groaned and shoved his paw away. "No thank you, Nick!" she complained, trying not to gag at the stench coming from her partner's burger. "I am rather enjoying my greens and plants." She grinned. "And yes, the _carrots_ too!" From across the table, she saw something rather unusual. "Uhh, Trigger, why are you taking apart your burger like that? Something in there you don't like?"

From the other side of the table, Trigger was squinting at his lunch, separating all the layers and looking over each one with a critical eye. "Quality control," was his simple reply.

The rabbit stared back blankly. "What?"

Count chuckled. "Ever flown a plane while suffering from food poisoning? Try several times."

Without looking up from his inspection, Trigger corrected Count. "Six. In roughly as many months. Then I learned to take my time and filter out all the bad stuff." Now apparently satisfied that he wasn't going to regret eating the burger, he put it back together before taking an experimental bite of his own. Much like Count, his reaction was that of overwhelmed joy at the flavor.

Wolford couldn't help but stare at the coyote's reaction. "Gee, what did they feed you two?"

Count shrugged as he reached across the table for more food. "Whatever would arrive in the supply train. Always too little and too late, half the time spoiled as well. And Trigger here, well he can never do things subtly, can he? Sure, the 'pilot with the three strikes' wasn't the only one who suffered from rotten food, but he had it the worst. Gave everyone else a good laugh, though."

Next to him, Trigger was glaring at his burger. "Glad you can make it count, Count," he muttered coldly.

Count winked at the other pilot. "Anytime, grumpy pants." He grabbed two drinks from the center of the table and slid one of them in Trigger's direction. The coyote was able to catch it at the last second before it rolled past him and fall to the floor.

Judy watched the event, feeling stupid for wanting to ask such a silly question, but it was something that had been bothering her for the entire lunch. "Why are the two of you sitting so far apart? Wouldn't be easier and more convenient to sit closer together?"

Count quickly glanced at Trigger, who only continued to stare at his burger as he ate. "Can't say that we like each other, if you might have guessed," the deer answered plainly. "We never sit next to each other if we can help it." Satisfied with his answer, he resumed eating his own lunch.

Trigger then spoke up. "If it will make you feel any better, bunny, I did try that once," he said quietly, "sit next to Count, 'get to know him better' that sort of deal. Didn't go well at all."

"What happened?" Judy asked, feeling rather curious. She noticed that Count was now glaring at Trigger with genuine anger, and felt a pang of worry that if she was going to get an answer, it wasn't going to be a good one.

Trigger, still staring at his partially eaten burger, didn't notice. "We had just gotten back from a mission, one that went okay. Well, except that there was an accident. Full Band got misidentified as hostile, and Count shot him down. Plane exploded before he could eject."

The answer Trigger gave got all of the officers' attention, just in time to see Count slam a fist hard on the table.

"Trigger? What the _fuck?_!"

Seemingly realized what he had just said, Trigger let out his own curse of regret, eyes wide with fear. "Count… I'm sorry," he mumbled.

Count stood up, stomping over to Trigger. "Did you even listen to yourself just now, you dumbass?" The deer was fuming as he stopped next to his fellow pilot. The sight of Trigger, a predator, shaking at the sight of the fuming prey mammal next to him would have almost been funny if it hadn't been so serious. "You moronic… stupid Ka-yote!" Count swung a hoof hard at the back of Trigger's head, resulting in a bone-shacking _thud_ that sent the coyote falling to the floor.

The impact also sent Judy into action, leaping up onto the table, tranquilizer gun already in her grasp and ready for action. "Back off, Count!" she ordered loudly, aiming at his center of mass to make sure that there was no way in the world that she was going to miss.

The other three officers were also standing, with Fangmeyer emitting a low growl to get everyone's attention. "Count, calm down!" She then glared at Judy. "You too, Hopps! And put your weapon back in its holster where it belongs. The nerve to pull it out!" To her credit, Judy re-holstered her tranq gun before hopping back down to her seat.

From the floor, Trigger groaned as he used the table to support himself back up, legs shaking as he steadied himself. He winced as he brought a hand to the back of his head, rubbing where Count had hit it. "It's all right," he said, "it's… it's my fault. It wasn't my right to tell that."

Count glared at him. "You bet your ass it wasn't." The deer faked another swing at Trigger, smirking when the coyote shrank back quickly to avoid another blow. Snorting in contempt, he returned to his own seat, glaring at the officers around him. "Oh get over it!" he complained, "dumbass needs to learn to keep his mouth shut!"

Trigger didn't return to his seat. "He's right," he mumbled miserably, "just let it go." Picking up what was left of his lunch, he carried it over to the windowsill and sat back down where he initially was before the food arrived.

While the tension in the room was still incredibly thick, the other officers could see that there was more risk of violence, so they also sat down.

Nick glanced at Judy, and grinned his hustler smile when a good plan comes together. She saw his expression, and shook her head, begging him not to do it, but too late. "Boy," Nick announced, "that escalated quickly. I mean that got out of hand fast." He was rewarded with a painful punch to his shoulder from his partner, this one far more to tell him to tone it down rather than the usual playful exchange, and he grimaced at her, rubbing the bruised area.

Judy rolled her eyes at his direction. Dumb fox. Should have kept his mouth shut.

Count picked at the last of the remains of his lunch. "Yup, it sure had," he finally said, far more calmly than he was able to speak just moments ago. "Gotta hand it to you lot, you sure do react fast. Especially you, bunny. Thanks for not shooting me." He let out a long sigh, and for the next several minutes, the room remained in a very awkward silence. Eventually, it was Count again who ended the quiet. Tapping on the table impatiently, he glared in the direction of the window. "Okay, fine! Trigger, you can come back to the table. I'm not even that mad at you."

The coyote didn't budge. "But I like it here," he replied simply.

Another sigh escaped Count as he grabbed a drink from the table. "Yeah? Well, you look like a real dumbass sitting over there. How old are you, ten?" He ignored the looks of anger coming from some of the officers, but particularly from Judy. In fact, just to spite her, he took his sweet time tilting his head back and consuming the fluid.

Trigger's answer then nearly caused Count to choke on his drink. "Sixteen. And a half."

The deer glanced at the officers with a very strong 'see who I have to deal with' type of expression. "Trigger," Count began in a very impatient tone, "don't be a moron. I know for a fact that you are older than that."

Next to the window, Trigger finally got himself to walk back to the table, wearing an expression of complete misery. "No," he agreed with Count, "I'm older than that. By more than ten years." He took a final bite of his food and crumpled up the remaining wrappers, tossing the lot into a nearby bin. "But, would you believe me when I say that I used to live here when I was that old?" His revelation gave him some gasps of surprise from the officers. Trigger then motioned out the window at the cityscape. "Well, not Zootopia itself, but close to it. Lynxmore, if any of you are familiar with it. About an hour, hour and a half away. I… I did visit this city on a couple of occasions, so I am not completely unfamiliar with it." He rested his paws on the table, leaning over it as he glared at Count. "So you can imagine that being this close to what used to be almost home, but not being able to reach it… it's rather frustrating." He glanced at the deer next to him. "Laugh about it all you want, Count, but excuse me for feeling homesick." He then waved an arm angrily at the direction of the officers. "And combine that with two guys upstairs deciding my future, add nervousness on top of that. So go ahead and call me an idiot, but I'm going back to sit by the window and at least try to pretend that I'm somewhere else." Doing as he just said, he returned to the windowsill, making a rather exaggerated show of sitting down on it.

Count shrugged from behind him. "Could be worse," he commented casually, smiling as he said it. "if you want to be a miserable sob, you can do so IN SOLITARY!"

Just about having enough of the deer's antics, Judy crossed her arms. "There's nothing funny about-"

She stopped when she heard Trigger's reaction. More specifically, how he started to chuckle despite clearly being in a terrible mood just moments below.

"Add more time for laughing about it!"

Judy stared dumbfounded as Count joined Trigger's chuckling, and soon both pilots were laughing their head off. There was no doubt that this was a private joke between them, but surely it couldn't be _that_ funny! She turned to her partner, wondering if he had any insight about it.

Nick was shaking his head in an amused manner, also finding humor in the bizarre situation. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Judy looking at him, eyes pleading for help in explaining just what in the world was going on. "Don't look at me," he whispered over to her, "only they know why that's funny."

The laughter was only stopped by the crackling of the room's intercom system. Bogo's voice filled the room. "Hopps, Wilde, Fangmeyer, and Wolford. Get the two pilots back here in ten minutes."

Fangmeyer stood up, chair squeaking on the floor. "I'll clean up the mess." The smiled slyly. "Also, I claim any leftovers." The smile turned smug as the other officers complained , though it was rather moot since there was hardly anything left. Though she was getting a spare plate of fries out of it, so Fangmeyer wasn't going to complain about the lack of leftovers. And she was definitely not planning on sharing. Well, maybe Wolford can get a little, seeing as he is her partner after all.

Wiping her paws after tossing some greasy wrappers in the trash, the tiger noticed Nick waiting patiently nearby in order to grab her attention. "Wilde, what is it?" Fangmeyer asked.

Nick tilted his head in Trigger's direction. "I want to talk to him. Just him, me and Carrots."

Fangmeyer raised an eyebrow, confused. "You don't need my permission to do that. Why ask?"

"Well, I need you to keep Count occupied," Nick answered back casually. "I would rather not have him interrupt us." He looked at where Judy was waiting next to Trigger. "Her idea, by the way," he hastily explained.

The tiger waved the fox off. "Nick, you seriously don't think James and I can keep one single deer in check?"

She was rewarded with Nick's patented smile. "Last night you didn't. Carrots and I needed to pull overtime to pull you out of a hustle as I recall."

Fangmeyer made an act of looking hurt by his comment. "Just get out of here, Wilde!" she replied, "and don't be late! I don't want to have to rescue you from Bogo's wrath."

Nick shrugged. "And miss sitting in on another endless meeting? You know, I'm starting to think that there is more paperwork and meetings planned out than there is time before the heat-death of the universe." He turned and walked off, getting Trigger and Judy before herding them out of the room.

The trio occupied a small bench inside a lone corridor, flanked by a pair of fake miniature palm trees. Trigger didn't seem to be comfortable sitting in the middle, packed in by the fox and bunny officers on either side of him. To his credit, he played along with whatever they wanted out of him.

"All right, so you got me alone," he muttered, "what is it?"

Judy took the imitative. "Several things, but first, as a formality: Would you like to file an official complaint against Count?"

Trigger looked at her, confused. "Huh? Why?" He seemed to catch on as he nervously rubbed the back of his head where he was hit, wincing slightly. "Oh, that… No, I don't want to," he finally said. "I really did say something I shouldn't have. Had Count really wanted to hurt me, I wouldn't be talking to you right now," he admitted.

Judy shook her head. "Still doesn't give him a right to hit you like that. Whether he wanted to or not, he _could_ have seriously hurt you there." She crossed her arms sternly. "Before any of us would have reacted."

Trigger looked nervous. "I said I don't want to file a complaint!" he repeated, agitation creeping into his voice. "We might not get along too well, but Count and I want the same thing out of this! It's best we stick together, and we both know it." He looked away from Judy when he caught her looking disappointed at him, leaving him staring at the ground so that he wouldn't have to look at Nick waiting patiently on his other side.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Judy let it slide. "Okay, so we will ignore that incident for now," she said. "But what about the way he treats you? Does he always act this rude? And that slur he used against you, just going to let that one go as well?"

The coyote looked at her, ears folded back in nervousness and even a slight fear. "What's with all the questions? Are you part of some Spanish Inquisition?" he asked. Judy didn't reply, letting him get onto answering her. "But as for Count, no, he's usually better than this. Just… when he gets angry, scared, or nervous… or any negative emotion, really, he takes it on by getting mad at the world. Just his way, I suppose." Trigger scratched an arm nervously, glancing at a nearby clock, looking displeased at the lack of progress of time. "As for the names… he wasn't even the one to come up with 'Dumbass' about referring to me, so you can't blame him for that one. As for the slur, as you put it," Trigger looked at Nick's direction. ""You just get used to it, you know. Mammals call you names just to rifle you up."

Next to him, Nick nodded. "That's just how life is, Carrots. You might not have grown up with others using the 'c' word with the sole purpose of getting on your nerves, but to us foxes, it happens all the time." He leaned over around Trigger to look at Judy. "Remember when we first met? How I called you a dumb bunny? I let you get away with calling me a dumb fox all the time because, hey, I call you things all the time too. But we both know that it's all in jest, and that we're friends and partners first and foremost. But without this uniform on and talking to someone you never met before, and most likely won't meet again? A whole new meaning comes to 'dumb fox'."

"And coyote," Trigger added.

"And coyotes." Nick agreed. "And a lot of others as well. You just learn to let it go into your ear, and straight out the other. Not worth getting your feelings hurt over silly mammal's comments." Trigger nodded along to Nick's comments.

If anything, Judy looked hurt by this revelation. "Still doesn't make it right," she muttered, "he used a slur against you. That's never okay! If mammals are to get along better, they can always start by not purposefully insulting one another." Trigger grunted quietly, sounding like he disagreed with the rabbit. Judy looked at him curiously. "What? You don't agree?"

"Well, no, not really..." Trigger went back to staring at the ground in front of him. "I just think it's better to just not make a big deal out of being called names. You can't please everyone you meet, but you don't need to hate them either. Names can't hurt you, you know? And for me personally, well, if all I can be is some stupid coyote, then I can at least do something where I don't have to listen to them."

That got Judy's attention. This story reminded her far too much of why Nick had turned to a life of hustling before meeting her. On the other side of Trigger, the fox was also paying closer attention than before. "Is that why you became a pilot?" Judy asked.

Trigger gave Judy a slight smile. "Yeah, at least… partially. Maybe." He looked uncertain as he thought for a few moments. "I always wanted to fly, for as long as I can remember. Was always into aircraft. You know, typical pup stuff… But with me it never really went away, so being a pilot always felt like a good choice…" He paused to gather his thoughts again, attention returning to Nick. "But there's also, with me being a coyote and all, I guess a part of me figured… so long as I'm up in the air, where they can't see me? Guess they won't mind what I am." This last part, he almost whispered as though he was convincing himself that what he had just said was true.

Nick stared at the coyote, eyes filled with compassion. After all, it only took him about two decades to sort his own life out due to the way other mammals treated him. By all measures, Trigger seemed to do rather well for himself. Although, Nick thought rather selfishly, coyotes probably had it slightly easier than foxes. But comparing who had it worse wasn't what he was interested in. "So apart from Count, who I already gathered makes everyone around him out to be like dirt, how do others in your squadron treat you?" Nick asked, "did it work out? Being a coyote pilot?"

He got confused when Trigger reacted in fear instantly, ears folding back as he visibly shrunk at hearing the question. Nick glanced at Judy again, conveying to her with his expression that he had no idea that his simply question would garner such a reaction. It also meant that the answer was not going to be a good one.

Slowly, Trigger's scared expression morphed to one of a silent anger, eyes boring a hole in the tiled ground in front of them. Almost to himself, he whispered, "Not when it mattered."

Nick watched the coyote, analyzing him, years of experience reading mammals automatically at work. Comparing the two pilots, there was a clear difference between Trigger and Count.

The deer was rude, brash, and if Nick had to voice his option, he would have said that Count simply didn't care about their current situation. Almost as if that if the deer was going to have a bad time in Zootopia, or wherever he would be sent, as long as he can make everyone else miserable as well, then Count will at least be satisfied. Odd, perhaps, but Nick had run into plenty of such mammals during his time as a hustler, and sadly, still occasionally butts heads with them as a cop. Some mammals are more than happy to just watch the world burn.

But Trigger was different. The coyote was troubled by something, that was obvious, but there seemed to be something deeper than just uncertainty for the future. Part of his job as a cop was to take statements from mammals. Sometimes, Nick might even be asked to interview someone brought into the station, either for a detective's case, or just a mammal that was brought in for a crime. The fox took pride in being able to tell when someone was lying, whether it was because they were straight up making things up, or because they were getting creative with the truth. Okay, he wasn't always correct with that intuition, but Nick couldn't help but feel that Trigger was hiding something from them. Possibly even something big.

Nick's gaze followed the path of Trigger's arm as just something to look at while he thought, only for the gaze to pause at a thin, differently shaded stripe of fur on both of the coyote's wrists. No, not differently shaded, but differently textured too. Like something hard had pressed down on the fur long enough to damage the hairs.

As a cop, Nick knew the look of long-term pawcuffs when he saw them. He hesitated about bringing it up... Judy might murder him later for it, but he simply had to know. "Um, Trigger?" Reaching out slowly, Nick grabbed a wrist firmly enough to maintain grip when Trigger instinctively pulled his arm back. "How did you get these?"

Sure enough, Judy leaned over to berate the fox for touching someone else without asking, but her words froze in her mouth when she saw what Nick was asking about. Her eyes widened in shock when she too recognized the telltale marks of a mammal who had to wear cuffs for more than just a brief time. Especially for someone who prided herself in her attention to detail, this was something that she didn't know how she missed before.

Trigger tried to free his arm from Nick's grip, but restrained from doing much more than trying to flex his arm to an uncomfortable angle for the fox. Besides, it was too late to unsee the damage.

Nick repeated his question, a bit more firmly. Still, he did not answer.

Judy chose to opt for the softer approach. She stood up on the bench to be more or less at an equal level with Trigger's head and placed a paw on his shoulder. His struggling with Nick weakened. "Trigger," Judy spoke softly, like she wanted to console a friend. "If there's something we need to know, you better tell us earlier rather than later." She held her gaze, filled with concern, eye locking onto the coyote's. He stared back without answering, his own gaze betraying something inside of him that, while she wasn't able to discern exactly what, told Judy that there was indeed something there.

Trigger lost the staring contest. "It's nothing," he eventually replied. "Absolutely nothing." He stood up off the bench, with Nick this time allowing him to reclaim his arm. "I'm uh, just gonna stop by the restroom," Trigger announced, "before we need to head back up." Forcing a nonchalant look on his muzzle, the coyote wandered in the direction of the nearest facility before disappearing inside. There was no need to follow him right away, that room had no windows or other doors to anything but storage closets. And unlike in action spy flicks, the ventilation in the roofs was far too small for Trigger to fit inside without alerting the whole building of his whereabouts.

Nick glanced at Judy, grinning slightly. "Never let 'em see that they get to you," he said, referring to his trademark statement.

Judy, for her part, did not smile back. "Nick, there's something wrong here," she told him sternly, "mammals in the military don't just walk around wearing pawcuffs." Her mind raced through different scenarios, theories, and memories to try and piece something, anything, together that can make sense. Her eyes lit up in realization. "Count! He also has cuff rings!" Well, without looking directly, she wasn't able to confirm, but her memory was telling her that he also had narrow bands of discoloration around his wrists.

Nick nodded in agreement. "I think I saw them on the deer too." His eyebrows drooped as he also tried to come up with an explanation. "POWs?" he asked suddenly, "Count was rather insistent on not being stuck in a camp. Could it be that they escaped from one? Or were released?"

"I don't know Nick," Judy replied, "your guess is as good as mine here, but it does makes sense. If it was a release, and no, I don't think they escaped, not into a transport plane, then it explains a lot of their hesitation to be caught by cops rather than coming to us for help. But why be so scared about admitting to being from one?"

The fox shrugged. "Maybe they aren't allow to tell us? Shame? I dunno, but something's freaking me out about all of this. I've never been in a POW camp myself, but perhaps I'd be scared about returning to one if I had just got out. Scared enough to not want to talk about it, even." He raised his paws in a 'I dunno' gesture. "Most reliable answer will have to come from Trigger, but I don't think he's gonna talk anytime soon." Nick suddenly groaned in a terrified realization. "Carrots, this is going to have to go into our reports, isn't it?" He didn't need to glance down at Judy to know that she was nodding. "Ugh, Bogo's gonna get real mad when he reads about that." He shrugged. "Well, I hope for our sake's, and theirs as well, that they'll be long gone before those reports get written up and filed." He glanced up at the clock, not liking the time he was seeing. "Well, I'll go and fetch him. No doubt Count's already upstairs with Fangmeyer and Wolford."

Judy hopped off the bench and followed her partner. "Hey, Nick!" the fox turned his head to look at her. She smiled back at him. "No matter what, we're going to help as much as we can, right? Make the world a better place?"

Nick grinned and flashed pistol fingers at the bunny. "Sure thing, Fluff!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Collared Business**

As usual for early in the morning, Precinct One's 'bullpen' was filled with the usual noises and sounds of the large mammals that always found various ways to fool around before the morning brief. No one already inside even batted an eye when Fangmeyer and Wolford walked in, despite the pair normally being in the second shift of the day.

Though the room did get noticeably quieter when a coyote and a deer walked in right behind wolf and tiger pair. Eyes tracked the new pair of mammals as they followed the wolf and tiger closer to the front of the room.

Wolford was able to tell that Count and Trigger being in the room was going to draw everyone's attention. After all, it wasn't often that the bullpen was graced with the presence of someone who wasn't a cop. Sure enough, then the questions started.

"Fangmeyer! Wolford! Are these two those pilots I heard about? Clawhauser mentioned something about them-" Figures that the cheetah made sure that every cop in the precinct was already aware of the two new 'guests'.

"You know, I thought they'd be bigger. You sure it's them?"

For their part, Count glared defiantly at the officers, a slight smirk on his muzzle to show them that he wasn't afraid. Trigger just kept his head down and followed the wolf and tiger in front of him.

Motioning at a pair of smaller foldable chairs sitting behind one of the tables, Wolford ushered in the two after Fangmeyer. "Take a seat, doesn't matter which. When Bogo comes in, make sure to be quiet and..." He looked over the two then waved a paw at them dismissively. "Eh, you two already know how this goes." He himself sat down on his usual chair and immediately turned around to talk to the lion sitting behind him. "Johnson! How's the first shift doing? I have a feeling Fangmeyer and I are getting bumped into it again."

Completely ignoring Count and Trigger, Wolford went right off to talking with his fellow officers, seemingly forgetting that there was anything unusual sitting right next to him. Fangmeyer as well was busy catching up with the other first shift officers, and for the most part, the room went back to normal, loud talking and the occasional louder contest of strength as well.

This was the state of the bullpen when the dynamic duo of Nick and Judy walked in. The fox had a coffee cup in paw as he always did at this time of day. The duo greeted their fellow officers in the room as they usually did, only diverting from their usual walk to the front-most table to stop by the desk where Fangmeyer and Wolford sat.

Judy waved at the wolf and tiger pair. "Good morning!" she greeted enthusiastically, bristling with her early morning bunny energy. "Thanks for fetching them from down below, by the way!"

Fangmeyer shrugged nonchalantly. "Never seen a pair of mammals so unexcited to leave a cell. Sure, we did give them a bit of extra bedding for the night, but it's still a _jail_ they slept in. Most mammals would have bolted straight outside."

"-Was comfortable enough," next to her, Trigger mumbled sleepily as he propped his head up on his paws, eyes closed. "...Too early..."

Wolford snorted in amusement. "I thought you pilots knew how to wake up early."

Count was eyeing his partner in such a way as though he was planning on pranking Trigger somehow. "Just because we know how to doesn't mean we like it," he countered, "we _never_ got to sleep in at our last base. Not even on our days off. And now, since I am being forced to sit next to the idiot..." Reaching out, Count gave Trigger's elbow a sharp shove. To the coyote's credit, Trigger was able to stop his head from falling and hitting the table with nothing more than a small bob and a disgruntled snort.

Wolford watched the pair's antics with an amused grin on his muzzle. "I don't know about you, Count, but Trigger really reminds me of some of my younger siblings," he said, "must be a wolf thing." His eyes opened wide suddenly in realization. "That reminds me! Just a sec-" he leaned down to below the table and started to rummage through his backpack. After only a few moments, he sat back up, tossing Trigger a shirt. "I borrowed this from a younger brother of mine. He outgrew it years ago, but it should fit you much better than the spare shirt you have on now."

Trigger looked over the shirt, letting out a slight cheer at seeing the pattern printed on the front. Then, despite being in a room filled with mammals of both genders, he proceeded to claw off his oversized ZPD shirt and replace it with the new one he was just given. It did fit much better, and he tugged on it to flatten out the front to show off to Count with a cheerful expression.

The deer snorted and shook his head in a mixture of disgust and amusement. "Seriously, Trigger? I think you were just given a shirt for _children_."

The shirt had a picture of a jet fighter – more specifically several pictures of the plane as it rolled over its wings across one side of the shirt and to the other. The caption underneath the diagram simply stated 'This is how I roll'.

Seeing that his choice wasn't going to be wasted, Wolford grinned. "Well, glad I was able to pick correctly. Since the size is correct, I might even be able to borrow a few more." Trigger tilted his head in mild confusion. "Don't look at me like that," Wolford replied casually, "the pack compound is filled with old clothing we no longer wear. Usually it gets sent to the donation bins, but every now and then we are able to find more direct uses for it, such as now. The real test is to see how Bogo will react to it." He turned to Nick and Judy. "Speaking of the chief, you two better get to your seats before he walks in."

Nick waved a paw at the wolf. "No problem. Holler if you need anything from us!" He followed Judy to their shared chair. It was almost funny, really: they would have gotten appropriately sized stools for them if they had asked for them, but since using the one chair for the both of them worked well enough, Bogo never felt like it was urgent of an issue to get better fitting furniture for the two smallest officers in the precinct.

Looking back from their chair, Judy could see that Count had settled on waiting impatiently for the briefing to start, half glaring at Trigger next to him, who in the meantime was ready to doze off again. "Just a sec, Nick," Judy told her partner, and quickly hopped off the chair to walk back over. "Hey, Trigger, there's an extra chair next to Nick and I, if you want it," she told the coyote. Trigger only opened an eye partially to look at her as a reply.

Count grinned. "Yes, Trigger, you do want that." He pushed the coyote off the chair, ignoring the ensuring protest as well as Judy's glare. "Don't look at me like that," he told the bunny, "just doing both of us a favor."

Fangmeyer had stopped talking to the officers behind her to look at the commotion next to her. "You know, that's very rude of you," she told the deer. "Let me remind you that you are surrounded by police_ officers_."

Count shrugged. "Trigger doesn't care that I fool around with him like that," he casually commented.

Wolford also took interest in what was going on next to him. "Still doesn't give you permission to act like a bully," he added to Erlenmeyer's scolding. "Last I checked, the two of you are adults. _And pilots_. If I had bumped into the two of you on the street, I would never have guessed that from how you are acting. If only for one reason, try to remember that you are embarrassing yourself." From the corner of his eye, he spotted Judy leading Trigger over to where Nick was waiting.

The rabbit watched the coyote nervously. "You know, Trigger, I suspect that Count enjoys pushing you around like that. It's not good for you to let him get away with it."

Trigger simply let out an annoyed sigh. "Not worth it," he finally answered, "besides, we both know that in the air, Count can't hold a candle to my flying. So he tries to make up for it by being bigger and meaner on the ground."

Judy shook her head in disapproval. "That's not a reason to allow him to push you around!" she retorted. "Remember yesterday at lunch? What would happen if you stood your ground to Count for once?"

"I'm a coyote," Trigger answered, a hint of anger creeping into his voice, "I think we both know what would happen if I tried to fight Count." They reached the chair where Nick sat, and Trigger used the opportunity to address him. "Isn't that right, fox?"

Nick took a sip of his coffee. "One, I believe you will find Bogo much more level headed than you give him credit for," he replied casually, "and two, I didn't hear Carrots say anything about resorting to violence."

The coyote opened his mouth to voice an angry reply, but was interrupted by Officer Higgins walking into the room. With the swift order from the hippo officer for everyone to stand at attention, it meant that the time for talking and arguing was over.

Chief Bogo walked in, a pile of papers in his hoofs. "Settle down everyone, and let's get this over with!" he commanded. Unlike normally, the buffalo stopped at the nearest desk to him and handed the stack to the nearest officer, who happened to be Snarlov. "Take one and pass the rest on," the chief instructed, "there's one for every officer in this room." The bear officer counted off enough of the papers to pass them down his row before handing the rest to the tables behind him.

Bogo walked behind the podium at the front of the room and gave a good hard glare at the seated mammals in front of him. "It appears that the first thing on the docket is to clear up the rumor mill going on around here." He waited until he was sure that the last of the officers in the room had received their paper. "Now, normally you all know how I introduce guests. That is, I don't care." He let out a soft sigh followed by a brief pause to let the room catch up to him, and to give some of the more curious officers a chance to actually glance at the paper. "But our government has forced me to care. Our _federal _government," he added, putting a lot of emphasis on the entity he was referring to, "which has kindly asked ZPD's precinct one to play hotel and host to two foreigners. Ocelotian pilots." He glared into the room, relishing in making the officers uncomfortable. "You can imagine what 'kindly asking' means, if you haven't read the paper handed out to you. And no, you don't have an option about signing it. Your signature, or your badge, those are the only two options, and you may not leave this room before you made your choice."

As soon as he said this, at least several officers were already reaching for pens. Bogo stopped them with an angry snort. "I don't care how much or how little of that paper you actually ready before you sign, but this way I know all of you know the most important part:" He waited just a bit to make sure that everyone were actually paying attention to him. "Anything you see or hear about either one or both of them, on or off the clock, if any of it escapes this building… I will find out who is responsible, and you _will_ know what the inside of a cell looks like. Not my threat, but the ZIA's. Which brings me to the second important part: Do not be surprised to see federal agents in the building, do not be surprised if they will ask to talk to you. You _will_ cooperate fully with them, and I better not hear any complaints about any of you from them." Bogo's gaze froze on a certain fox at the front of the room.

Nick gulped as he stared back at the chief.

"Normally, I do tolerate a certain amount of pranking and rough housing between you lot," Bogo continued, "do not think that just because I don't mention it that I am not aware of what is going on within these walls. As long as it's kept in check, the small games help officers get along, improves morale, the usual nonsense. However..." Bogo's eyes finally lifted away from Nick, who let out a sigh of relief at finally being out of the spotlight. "I will not be told when the ZIA or someone else important will decide to stop by for a visit. Because of that, as long as our two guests are with us, you will all be on your best behavior." His eyes snapped back to Nick. "Am I understood, Wilde?"

The fox knew better than to answer with one of his carefree retorts this time around. "Yes sir," he replied simply, earning a grunt of annoyance from his boss.

Bogo then looked down at his papers. "Can't have a politician take a wrong turn in these corridors and get ambushed by a stink bomb," he casually commented. "Yes, Wilde, I am well aware of that. The only reason you are still alive is because of the pristine job you made in cleaning up the mess. _Don't ever do it again._"

Nick's ears were folded over his head and the fox was close to breaking out in a nervous sweat. "Yes sir," he repeated quietly.

"Good." Bogo's angry demeanor lessened somewhat after this. "Good news for us is that after all of this is finished, the feds have promised to compensate the ZPD for the inconvenience. So if you lot behave _really_ well, we might just see some of those precinct wish list items finally get checked off."

Normally such news would have been received by much cheering and hollering, but the tense mood meant that some of the braver officers only emitted a little bit of noise in their celebration. Bogo simply watched the room while waiting for the even slight amount of noise to stop.

"As for our two guests, I am planning on using them in a way that will suit us. Since the ZPD's role is simply to keep an eye out on them, I am going to use that to my advantage while I can." The buffalo's gaze went over to Count. "So you can wipe that cheeky smile off your muzzle right now, because as soon as I find a way to make the two of you useful, you _will_ be working." Count's grin vanished and was replaced by an unamused frown. "So that also means-" Bogo froze mid sentence when he looked over at Trigger.

The coyote was sitting on the chair next to Nick's and Judy's, head leaning down, eyes closed. And snoring quietly.

The officers nearby who were aware of what was going on stared in a deathly silence, afraid to move. Trigger had violated the biggest rule of the bullpen: You _never_ slept during a brief.

Judy reached out to shake the coyote awake, but a sharp snort from Bogo stopped her. Hesitantly, she pulled her arm back.

Bogo leaned down and grabbed something from inside the pedestal he spoke behind of. He stood back up, a large-mammal sized blowhorn in his grip. Silently walking over to the table where Trigger was sleeping, he carefully positioned the device right next to the coyote's ear before squeezing the horn.

The entire room erupted into laughter as Trigger flew off his chair with a frightened yelp, trying to escape the loud shriek right next to his head even before he knew what was going on. Well, almost everyone were laughing: Judy was looking downright horrified when Trigger's head missed the corner of the table behind him by just a hair's width, colliding with the ground in an audible _thud_ instead.

Trigger scrambled to his feet in an undignified manner, ignoring the laughter of the rest of the room as Bogo returned to the back of the pedestal. The coyote winced as he rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the ground, just about in the same location as where Count had thumped him the day before as well.

Judy gave him a sad stare. "You were asleep," she explained quietly, despite the laughter still in the room, to which Trigger simply nodded in embarrassment.

"Everyone quiet!" Bogo ordered, his voice easily overwhelming the rest of the room' noise with its shear presence. "Now that you all had your laugh: assignments." Reading off his notes, Bogo proceeded to read off the list as though nothing unusual had just happened. For that matter, the listed off tasks were the usual for the middle of the week for the ZPD as well.

It was only when he got to the end that Bogo announced anything unusual. "Wilde, you will be paired with Fangmeyer for today," he read off the notes, "Hopps, you will be with Wolford. The four of you, meet me at my office after this. Bring Count and Trigger with you." He took one final look at his notes. "You all have your assignments. _Dismissed_! Hand those signed papers over to me on your way out."

The buffalo barely looked as everyone shuffled past him one at a time and handing over the paper to his waiting hoofs. In fact, his demeanor barely changed all the way until he was back behind his desk in the upstairs office. There, Count and Trigger again found themselves surrounded by the officers, but Bogo's attention was fixed very much on a nervous looking coyote. In fact, Trigger looked like he was ready to start shaking beneath Bogo's angry gaze.

The chief relished in the effect he had on Trigger, only snorting in anger when he felt that the silence had gone on long enough. "I hope you don't need to be taught why I do not tolerate anyone falling asleep in my briefing room," the muttered coldly, "you should be thanking your stars you are not one of my officers."

Trigger couldn't keep his own gaze locked with Bogo's, and lowered his eyes in submission. "Sorry sir, it won't happen again," he replied quietly. He earned himself another snort from the buffalo.

"Ultimately, your behavior is not why I brought you all in here," Bogo continued, "these arrived early this morning." He reached inside his desk. "I made sure that my personal views on these were very clearly stated: I do not condone the use of these, nor would I ever authorize any of my officers to use them. But as always, the decision was made for me."

From out of his desk, he pulled out two devices. Upon closer inspection, Judy's eyes widened in shock. "Sir, there's no way those are ill-"

"TAME collars were never illigalized, Hopps," Bogo replied swiftly, cutting her off before she could even finish asking the question. "Believe me, I checked when they arrived. As much as I would have loved to send these torture devices back, Animalia never actually banned their use, nor are their any more local level laws. It's one of those things that simply… fell out of favor, if you will. So when it comes to being ordered to use them, my hoofs are tied. Nor, Hopps, can you go and complain about them to anyone in this country. You can thank the Ocelotians for sending them in." He handed a collar each to Count and Trigger. "I believe a certain Colonel McKinsey was the one responsible for having these issued. A 'guarantee and protection that our two pilots behave themselves' was the words he used."

Count glared at the device in his grip. "That filthy no-good swine of an-"

"I will not tolerate that kind of specieist language in my office!" Bogo shouted, interrupting the deer.

"But he is a pig!" Count argued back. "A warthog, to be exact!"

Bogo's glare was enough to silence Count up. "You weren't referring to his species, and we both know that," he answered coldly, "so let me repeat myself: I will not tolerate specieist language. Not from you, not from anyone." He let out a frustrated sigh and leaned back in his seat. "I was able to get the Ocelotians to relent on requiring these to be worn at all times. As long as you are within ZPD boundaries, they do not have to be on, but otherwise, they are to be worn and be left on."

Count glared at the device in his hands. "There is no way that this is right!" he protested.

The chief simply stared back at the deer. "I agree with you, but the choice is simple," he answered, "you want to stay in this building, you can hand that back. You will find there is not much to do here, which adding that you are not an officer, narrows the list down even more."

"Gee, what a choice," Count said bitterly, "die of boredom, or be shocked to death." He was just about growling at the collar he was holding. "Trigger?"

The coyote glanced up at Count at hearing his name mentioned. "I… I wouldn't mind seeing the city again," he finally answered, but sounding rather uncertain. "I don't think this will stick out too much." Hesitantly, he reached up to his neck and fiddled with the collar, only lowering his paws when the collar was locked in place. "It's not even on, and already it feels terrible," he admitted. He lifted his paws up to his neck again as he adjusted the collar of his shirt to try and hide the offending device. To Trigger's surprise, Bogo was looking at him with pity in the buffalo's eyes.

"For what it's worth, I meant it when I said that I am trying to find something the two of you can do around here," Bogo said. "That way, you won't be bored here, and you won't have to leave those devices on." He reached into his desk and pulled out two more devices. The remote controllers for the collars. He handed one each to Fangmeyer and Wolford. "Considering how sticky this situation is, with international regulations being skirted all over the place," he suddenly grunted in mild amusement, "why do I feel like you went into the wrong business, Wilde. You would fit right in with those politicians."

Nick shrugged. "What can I say, Bogo, sir? A certain bunny lured me into a more honest living." He ignored Bogo's grunt as he flashed Judy a smile.

"Anyways," the chief continued, "as much as I would love to tell you that you can simply leave wear those collars but leave them off, I'm afraid others will be checking that we at the ZPD are doing all we could to make sure that there are no… attempts at freedom or other leaks." He stared at Count and Trigger, then turned his attention to the two officers with the remotes. "So if you have to, use them. But _only_ if you have to. If I get even only an idea that one of you have used a remote in an inappropriate manner, it will be more than your badges that you will lose."

Despite Bogo's gaze, Fangmeyer didn't seem phased. "No need to worry about us, sir," she replied confidently, "Officer Wolford and I have our own reasons against these collars. We won't use them unless there is absolutely no other option."

"Good." Bogo looked genuinely pleased with the answer. "Which brings me to one final point – the reassignment of partners." The four officers looked at one another, trying to see why Bogo changed who was going to be with whom for the day. "Even with the collars, I have a feeling that they might not be enough to actually stop an escape attempt."

Count snorted in anger. "We're sitting right here you know! And I am not amused to think that you feel so lowly of us." Despite his complaining, the deer was also wearing his collar.

Bogo snorted again. "You never gave me a reason to suspect that you will behave, _Count,_" was his reply. "And what I do believe is that even when the situation would call for it, that you officers won't use the remotes for the collars." As Fangmeyer opened her mouth to protest, Bogo cut her off with a quick look. "I am not saying this because I doubt your abilities as a cop," he said sternly, "but because I know that I myself would use the remote only when it would be too late. And, because you two pilots have already demonstrated a good ability in using your size as an advantage, you will be paired with officers who will bracket you in. One smaller, one bigger." He sighed and looked at Nick and Judy. "Since you two are the only smaller officers I have, you will be playing cubsitters for as long as required."

Judy smiled back at the chief. "Don't worry, sir. It's what we do here in the ZPD, after all," she answered.

The buffalo grunted. "Would have been easier if that wasn't necessary," he admitted. He looked over Trigger once more. "And lose that ridiculous shirt, and for all of you, dress warmly. You will be patrolling the Tundratown and Jungle district routes today. I hear the weather is set to be colder and wetter than usual."

It didn't take long for the meeting to conclude after this point, though not much else was said as the two pairs split off and got ready for the patrol. Bidding Nick and Fangmeyer goodbye, Judy and Wolford grabbed their gear and lead Trigger to the cruiser waiting in the motorpool.

Perhaps it was that he waited to voice his opinion until they were away from security cameras, but as soon as Wolford finished adjusting his seat to fit his size more properly, he smashed his fists on the dash in front of him. "This sucks!" he exclaimed loudly, "I swear those collars were banned years ago!"

In the back of the car, Trigger stared out the window. "Why are you even complaining? You're not the one wearing it," he finally said, "and I do want to see the city. So if I have to wear it, I guess I will suffer through it."

Wolford snorted in amusement. "I know you don't care, Trigger. You fell asleep during the morning brief. _Right in front of Chief Bogo_!"

"I didn't mean to!" Trigger protested, "...It just sort of happened. Today was the first time I've gotten any real sleep in, I want to say… over a week. So forgive me for still being tired."

"Still fell sleep in front of Bogo," Wolford repeated. "That takes some serious balls. No offense, Hopps."

From the driver's seat, Judy shrugged. "None taken." Before starting the engine, she turned around to look at the coyote in the back, her face serious. "We haven't left yet. You can still change your mind and stay here. You won't have to wear that… collar."

Removing his gaze from the window, Trigger stared back at the bunny with an annoyed expression. "Let me phrase it this way," he said, "do missiles lock onto and fly at the stupid collar? Am I at risk of being shot, bombed, or blown up by wearing it?"

Judy stared back blankly. "Uh… no?"

Trigger returned to staring outside his window. "Then a little electro-collar isn't going to hurt me, is it?" he asked, though some venom in his voice betrayed a hint of anger at the situation. He didn't say anything else, so Judy turned back to start the car up.

Next to her, Wolford had pulled out the remote, and was reading the instructions for it. With a simple press of a button, a quiet beep was heard as Trigger's collar turned on. While the coyote had chosen to remain in the shirt Wolford had given him, a faint yellow light shone though a gap in the jacket he wore over it.

As the car started to pull away, Trigger spoke up again. "Might as well get it out of the way, since I know both of you are too polite to ask..." An annoyed sigh escaped him. "Yes, I did kill mammals. Can't even say how many... But since they were trying to kill me at the same time, I don't even feel too bad over it… Such is the nature of war, you know? I've had to dodge missile attacks... I've hid in craters as our base was being bombed. And yes, I've been shot at. Even got into a number of paw fights."

The collar beeped and briefly flashed red. Both Judy and Wolford winced as a faint crackle of the collar going off. But Trigger didn't even appear to notice the shock. "But I guess what I want to say is… I would appreciate it if both of you would drop the topic of these collars. As bad as you think they are, I've been through worse."

From the passenger seat, Wolford whistled in surprise. "That's heavy. We hardly left and you already got buzzed. Got any other surprises for us, Trigger?"

As she drove towards the frozen areas of Tundratown, Judy gripped the steering wheel tighter even as Trigger didn't answer the wolf's question. The beep of the collar and a noticeably stronger crackle of electricity were answers enough.

She could only wonder if Nick and Fangmeyer were faring any better with Count.

Wolford, for his part, had another idea. He reached into his shirt pocket there he kept his notebook and pulled it out. Flipping to the last page, he let out a heavy sigh and wrote two simple words: _Trigger __jolts_.

Beneath it, he jotted down two tallies.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: "Research"**

With a satisfied sigh, Nick hit the 'send' button on his computer and leaned back in his chair, grinning widely as he let out a long, exaggerated yawn. As much as he liked to procrastinate on his paperwork, even he had to admit that the feeling of having it all done and completed felt really good. And right on time too: he had only a few minutes left before the end of his shift.

The fox leaned back a bit more to look at the chair that Judy normally used, still empty from when he came in here after his shift with Fangmeyer. With his and Judy's combined sizes still being smaller than an officer such as, say, Francine Pennington, it was far more practical for them to share a cubical rather than to get one for each of them.

Nick's shift was also identical to Judy's, so it was odd that even now, when they were supposed to meet up in order to head over to his place for their 'end of the week movie', that she hadn't even stopped by the office to ask him to wait up for her.

With a shrug, the fox stood up in order to leave the office. He knew exactly where he could find her, or more specifically, where he could spend the time and she will not miss him: the ZPD lobby. He felt slightly disappointed that he didn't run into Judy on the way down, but her being able to find him was the entire reason why he stopped by Clawhauser's desk. He grinned and flashed pistol fingers at the cheetah. "Hey, Spots? Know any whereabouts for Carrots?"

Clawhauser was busy with his computer, but paused long enough to look over to the fox. "Sorry, Nick. I thought she was with you," he answered. "Today's Friday. Don't the two of you always leave together on Fridays?"

Nick felt the tips of his ears heat up, but his expression didn't change. A nice trick from years living the hustler life. "Yeah we do," he casually replied, "but we're also partnered up normally, and so we end at the same time. But today I was with Fangmeyer and she was with Wolford, remember?"

Clawhauser looked confused for a second. "Why would you be paired up with Dahlia?" His eyes lit up as he recalled the unusual arrangement. "Oh, right, our pet pilots." He smacked his forehead with a paw. "Silly me! How could I forget?" He turned away from from the computer to face Nick better. "Did you try your office?" he asked.

Nick stared back blankly. "I just came from there," he finally told Clawhauser.

The cheetah chuckled nervously. "And she's not there? Uhh..." He glanced at his computer screen, wincing at whatever he saw. "Sorry, Nick, but I really need to get back to work. You know me: I love to chat and all, but Bogo has really been pressing me on this since morning." He noticed the fox looking somewhat dejected at not getting a good answer to his question. "As for Judy? She did come back with Wolford, and she didn't leave yet, that much I know. So she's still here, somewhere."

Sighing, Nick held out his paws in a dismissive manner. "Yeah? Well, what can I do?" he huffed, "anyways, thanks for the help, Spots. I'm sure Carrots will show up soon." Fortune seemed to smile upon him because from behind Clawhauser's desk, Wolford's voice called out to him from across the lobby.

"Hey, Wilde! Over here!"

With a smirk, Nick winked at Clawhauser. "What are the odds? See you around, Spots!" He turned and quickly walked over to the waiting wolf. "'Sup?"

Wolford raised an eyebrow at the overly casual greeting. "Listen, Wilde, I want to ask you to do something for me."

Nick frowned. He really wanted to just find Judy and go home finally. Still, he didn't sign up and go through all that training to become a cop just to be lazy and stupid with his work. Besides, Wolford wasn't acting like he was about to ask any big favors out of him. "Sure thing, what do you need?"

"So you know how the next two days are yours and Hopps' weekend?" Wolford asked.

That wasn't the direction Nick was expecting the conversation to go, so if anything, his interest grew in whatever the wolf wanted. "...Yeah?" he answered, as though it was an obvious question. Although, in many ways, it was: He and Judy worked with Wolford and Fangmeyer long enough together that they were well aware of each other's schedule, and how they both shared a day where their weekends overlapped.

"Well," Wolford continued, "I'm sure that Bogo will have me and Fangmeyer watch over the pilots tomorrow. I'm not sure exactly how it will work, since we're both bigger and he wanted someone smaller to be with them." He paused for a moment. "Uh, he didn't ask you two to work overtime for this, did he?" When Nick shook his head, the wolf shrugged and resumed talking. "And I currently have no idea what will happen in two days, but that's not the point. Actually, don't you and Judy normally leave together on your last day of the week?"

Nick again felt the warmth grow in his ears, but once more, his composure didn't change. "Yeah. We like to watch a movie together to celebrate the start of the weekend," he replied, tone telling Wolford to continue with whatever he wanted to ask.

"So you know how Count and Trigger had to wear those TAME collars today?"

It wasn't really a question. But Nick was already starting to piece it together. "Let me guess: Emotional bunny?"

Wolford winced, but there was a hint of a grin on his muzzle. "Yeah, I guess you can say that," he confirmed. "Actually-" He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his notepad. Flipping to the last page, he counted up the tallies. "I've been keeping track of how many times Trigger got zapped," he explained, "it's uh..." his eyes narrowed as he counted off the marks. "...thirteen? There's no way that can be right." He frowned. "No, I'm sure there are no duplicates here. If anything, I might have missed some. But if that's correct, that's almost three an hour..." He rubbed his neck where a collar would have been had he wore one in empathy

Nick tried to read the pad as well, but the wolf was holding it too high for him to see. "Well, even if it's true, last I saw, Three Strikes looked fine. Heck, Count also got zapped a couple of times. A squirrel ran into him at one point, and he got angry, setting his collar off, that one I remember well. He was fine too when I left him to finish up with some paperwork."

Wolford nodded. "And I agree with you. Trigger was just about begging us not to send him back to the station at one point when Hopps had enough of the shocks. Whatever was setting him off all the time, he clearly didn't care enough to stop it. But yeah, speaking of Hopps… I don't think she took being around one too well."

Yup, that definitely sounded like Judy. Trust her to be the one to care a bit too much about what others were feeling around her. Of course, it was one of the reasons why she was such a good cop.

"So you want me to keep an eye out on her?" Nick asked.

The wolf nodded. "More or less. Talk to her, maybe. Actually, I'm sure she's at Bogo's office right now. Complaining about the collars, would be my guess." He flipped the pad closed and returned it to his pocket. "Anyways, here's a plan I came up with: Fangmeyer and I can take the two out for dinner somewhere. I'm thinking Fred's. It's close, and well within the per diem Count and Trigger are receiving. And yes, it's away from the station, so they will have to wear those collars. But I am hoping that we can leave without Hopps noticing. So if you can get her to be a bit more relaxed around them? She really was tense all of today, even when I tried to tell her that Trigger didn't care so much. _He_ tried telling her, but I think that she believes he was only trying to make her feel better." Wolford grinned finally. "So yeah, nothing but a bit of silliness."

Nick grinned back. "So why ask me to do that? You don't think I would have not noticed? Don't worry, this fox's got your back!" With a new destination on where to find the bunny, he waved goodbye to the wolf.

He didn't even make it all the way to Bogo's office: he ran into said bunny slowly making her way down the stairs. Her ears were dropped low over her back, betraying her emotions. The sight made Nick feel uneasy, but he put on his natural hustler smirk as he greeted her. "So, finally done with the day, Fluff?" he placed his paws on her shoulders and guided her down the stairs. "How does a movie sound? Also, takeout or are you patient enough for me to cook something up?"

Judy looked up at the fox. "Listen, Nick..." she hesitated, changed her mind, then shook her head. "Never mind, forget it. Sure, let's go. I'm down for whatever can be nuked in your microwave."

_Emotional bunny_, Nick though, but didn't voice his opinion. He could already tell that his mammal skills would be needed tonight, but more importantly, that the ZPD lobby wasn't the place to use them. He can wait until they will settle down in front of his television. Besides, some warm food would do Judy good and help her relax as well. "I'll drive," he said, firm tone telling her that no, it was not negotiable.

Judy didn't say anything. She simply walked over to the passenger side and slid inside, staring out the window with a gloomy expression after buckling herself in.

Nick finished adjusting the seat to fit his size better before turning to her. He opened his mouth to say something when he saw just how miserable she looked, but stopped himself. No, now wasn't the time. First he needed to get her home, then get her comfortable. Only then would he actually try to get her out of whatever mental state she dug herself into. Returning his attention to the road, he turned the engine on and pulled out of the lot.

He drove in silence, noting how Judy continued to simply stare out the window. Luckily for the fox, traffic was in his favor today, and it didn't take too long to complete the drive back to his apartment. Parking the car, he was going to open the door for Judy, but she had already exited the vehicle and was waiting for him at the door to the apartment. With a shrug, he locked the car and opened the apartment door for her, leading the bunny over to the couch where they would normally watch a movie together. "Make yourself at home, Fluff," he instructed, "I'll get everything ready."

Leaving Judy on the couch, he walked into the kitchen and started preparing dinner. Nick wasn't a cook. In fact, he was only good enough to keep himself fed without worrying about the flavor too much. So when he opened up his cupboards and fridge to see what was inside, he stopped, thinking. Well, food, there was. But today wasn't a day when he can just get away with making whatever for dinner. Judy was waiting, and with her current mood, he needed a little special touch of extra… 'U-Nickness'. Grumbling to himself, the fox returned to the living room where Judy was waiting for him on the couch.

Judy looked up from her thoughts when he walked in. "Need any help from me?" she asked, ears perking up slightly, but still far from their normal excited state.

Nick grabbed the laptop he used for watching movies on with a shake of his head. "Nah, just make yourself comfortable. I'll be back in no time at all! Just gonna find what to watch while I make dinner." Picking up the device, he returned to the kitchen. Judy looked at him with mild disappointment, but didn't argue.

Nick didn't grab the laptop to find a movie. Setting the laptop down on the counter, he quickly did a simple Zoogle search for something completely different. Since it wasn't the first time curiosity had gotten the better of him, Nick knew exactly what to look for when he searched for a simple, quick, but also tasty recipe for lagomorph cuisine. Scrolling through the lists to find something that he had the ingredients for, he finally found one that looked appealing.

_Sure hope you'll appreciate the effort I am putting into this, Fluff_.

Truth be told, when recipes say 'simple', the authors always underestimate the skill of the mammal on the reading end of the bargain. Or lack of skill, as is with Nick. But after twenty minutes or so, he had a completed plate of what he was really hoping was at least edible, if not for him, then at least for Judy. One paw holding the laptop, the other the food and dishes with utensils, he returned to the living room. Judy was still on the couch, resting her head on the armrest.

"This one's on the house!" Nick announced, setting the food down. And as for the laptop, he made sure to close the web browser before bringing it back, but he didn't have a movie ready to go either. "I couldn't think of something to watch that will fit the mood," he casually explained.

Judy lifted her head up from the couch, nose twitching as she caught scent of the food Nick prepared. "I- wow, Nick, I'm rather impressed," she admitted. "You honestly didn't need to do that."

The fox shrugged as he sat down next to her. "What can I say? I thought this situation needed something a bit more than the usual." He leaned over, and ignoring Judy's comment of 'silly fox', started to rub her shoulders in a way he knew she liked. "All right, Fluff, let's get the unpleasantries out of the way. What's eating you?"

Judy stopped in the middle of grabbing some of the delicious smelling meal, ears dropping back down over her back. "It's nothing, Nick. Honest!" She returned to grabbing the food, but noticed how Nick's massaging stopped after her comment.

"It's not 'nothing'," Nick countered calmly, "something going on I need to be aware of? _Judy?_" He resumed massaging her as a way to coax her into talking.

The bunny stopped again. The fact that the fox used her actual name, despite the relaxed tone he was using, spoke volumes about the patience that was rapidly running out with him. "I uh… It's the collars, Nick," she admitted with a heavy sigh. "The TAME collars. I was in a police car for almost the entire day while a mammal was in the back with one of those on. And I just… I didn't feel like I was being a good cop. Nick, what kind of cop allows a mammal to wear one of those?"

Nick didn't stop massaging with his paws. "Well, a cop that knows when they have to let some things slide," he answered, "and also recognize that sometimes, what a mammal prefers might be contrary to what you might think they want."

Judy huffed and turned her head to look at the fox. "And what is that supposed to mean? That Trigger _wanted_ to be shocked all the time?" She started to speak quicker as her mood worsened. "And I mean _all day_! Wolford was keeping track of every time that collar went off! He didn't tell me what the final count was, but even one is one time too many! And I was there just letting it all happen!"

Nick didn't even blink at the bunny's tone. "Thirteen or so," he said, "he told me." He abandoned her shoulder to rub the back of her ears in a way that he knew she liked. "And Wolford also told me that our coyote didn't want to go back to the station. You know, where he wouldn't have to wear the collar. So he must have preferred to leave it on." Taking advantage that his paws were already close to Judy's head, he poked the back of her skull. "And I somehow think that you also knew that. So I suspect that there is something else going on in that noggin of yours. So, care to tell me more?"

Judy looked really guilty as she looked down at the floor in front of the couch. "You remember that press conference, Nick?" she finally asked quietly, "after I thought that we had cracked the missing mammal case?"

Next to her, Nick chuckled quietly. "How could I?" he muttered, a hint of nervousness in his own voice as well. "It took me far too long to realize that as much as I had resented other mammals for never giving me a chance, the first thing I do after you make a mistake of your own was to blow you off and refuse to give the very thing I had always wanted from someone else." He chuckled at recalling his own stupidity with the events, then remembered that he really should let the bunny do the talking. "Right, so you were saying?"

Judy continued to stare at the floor, her nose twitching. "I don't know how much you were aware of just how close the city came to collapsing in on itself after that. The protests, violence, and just general… distrust. By everyone. But especially towards predators." If Nick had his own comments, he kept them to himself as he allowed her time to gather her thoughts. "But that wasn't even all of it. Even, um, especially back then, I had thought that by finding the missing mammals, that it would be all over, and that somehow, we could all just forget about the whole mess. Then the savage attacks started to increase..."

The bunny looked up at her partner, eyes noticeably more moist than they normally would be. "No one knew of a cure, or even the cause for the attacks, but everyone saw that it was only predators. Nick… Zootopia was _this_ close to passing a law forcing all predators to wear those TAME collars. An-And all because I c-couldn't keep my mouth closed when asked a stupid question!"

Her voice started to quiver quite hard at this point, so she had to take a few deep breaths to steady her nerves. Eventually, Judy felt ready to start talking again. "They had driven trucks filled with the collars into the city, so that they would be ready to be put on all predators as quickly as possible. I've seen them, Nick - I saw those trucks filled with those collars. And today, in the office, when Bogo pulled them out, it just reminded me too much of what I nearly did to this city. Of how I made the world a worse place, and not a better one like I had always wanted to."

Judy leaned her head against Nick's body, taking comfort in the softness of his warm fur, as well as the gentle, rhythmic motion of his breathing. "I am such an emotional bunny," she concluded.

Nick grinned down at her. "That you are," he agreed, "but you are _my_ dumb, emotional bunny." He adjusted his sitting position to make it slightly more comfortable for both of them. "Okay, so now we know what the problem is: you really hate those collars, and they come too close to a few skeletons in your closet," he grunted. "Kinda like muzzles for me, now that I think about it. But that's neither here no there. The question is: what do we do about it?"

"I don't know, Nick!" Judy complained, swatting at the fox's paw "if I did, I wouldn't be like this, would I?"

Nick ignored Judy's small outburst, deep in thought. "I think I might know something," he muttered out, getting the bunny's attention. "When I was in the academy, I had to go through some special side training." He glanced down at Judy. "They made it very clear how one of the requirements for passing that I had to deal with was to get used to, well, using a muzzle." He grunted in a rather unamused fashion. "I don't have to tell you how much I _enjoyed _that one."

Next to him Judy nodded. In her excitement when he handed her the filled out application to become a cop, she had completely forgotten the fox's extreme negative reaction to what was a standard piece of equipment that all cops were expected to know how to use. As well as carry with them, or at the very least, within easy reach in their vehicle.

And after Nick graduated, it was only later that Judy had even remembered about that part of training, she didn't feel comfortable asking him back then. And later, it only slipped past her mind as something unnecessary to know about. But now that he mentioned it… "What did they make you do?" she asked a hint of fear in her voice. "They didn't… they didn't make you-?"

"They did," Nick confirmed with a grimace. His paws rose to cover his own muzzle, as well as moving back at an imaginary locking mechanism. "They didn't force me into one, not like what happened with the Junior Scouts. But they did make me get into one. Repeatedly. And they made me put muzzles on others. But it was a slow process," he sighed, "a very slow, and even more painful, process that I hated every step of the way. But they also made sure not to push me too hard. Guess when your job is to train new recruits, you get good at knowing how far you can push someone out of their comfort zone, without overdoing it to where they fall apart." After this, his tone returned to a more normal tone. "I still hate muzzles, don't get me wrong. _That_ will never change. But I am also able, if needed to, reason my way into using one when I have to. Well, I have yet had to deal with a situation that required a muzzle, thank goodness, so I can't actually say if I will be any good or not," he sighed again, "but I would like to think that if the situation required me to, that I wouldn't let you down by freezing up."

Judy was nodding along with Nick's explanation, but when he ended, some of his reasoning started to fall apart in her head. "But Nick – those are muzzles! They are completely different than those collars. And we never put mammals into a muzzle for hours on end!"

The fox frowned. "Yeah, well-"

"Nick!" Judy interrupted, getting rather agitated. "I am not going to 'just get used to it', if that's what you're implying! There's a reason why they aren't used!" She pointed an angry finger at her fox. "And don't you _dare_ try to ever justify using one of them!"

Nick's ears folded back as he shrank away from her accusing stare. "I wasn't trying to justify them," he mumbled, "it's just that, well, for me, I don't really see the difference between a shock collar and a muzzle." When Judy's angry glare changed into a glance of confusion, he took it as a sign to continue talking. "Look, when one of those TAME collars isn't actively shocking you, then what it is? A hunk of dead weight hanging around your neck. Not much of an intrusion, is it? Okay, it does then shock you if you feel… anything extreme, but think about it, that collar, well, it's kinda like a muzzle for emotions, don't you think? One is a contraption of metal and wires, the other is a fancy electric circuit and a battery. But in the end, both server the same purpose – to stop a mammal from being fully able to express themselves."

Judy continued to stare at him.

Nick reached over to her shoulders and resumed rubbing them as he took a breather to gather his thoughts. "As far as I am concerned, if I had my way," he explained, "I wouldn't have either of them. Ban both the collars and muzzles. Greater society has decided that one is worse than the other, to which I say 'to hell with them'. But as for our current situation: we are asked to escort around mammals who have two choices: stay at the station, or be granted some freedom at the cost of having to wear an 'emotional muzzle'."

"A terrible choice," Judy muttered dryly, "no innocent mammal should be forced into that position. That's an unfair choice!"

"Life's not fair, Judy," Nick interrupted without blinking. "Sure, you know how when at the station, I always act like I'm the 'Super Fox', best mammal in the world! No one better than me? And yet, for more than ten years, I spent my life completely resenting the species I was born as? More then a decade, completely gone and wasted, because I didn't like the unfair position I was given."

"Nick-" Judy began, but stopped. She wasn't actually sure if she wanted to interrupt the fox.

"Then you came along, Judy," Nick said with a smile, "you showed me that yes, life is unfair. I, a fox. Good for nothing, scheming, lying fox. You? a bunny. A small, cute carrot farmer." He ignored the sour look he got for using the 'c' word, especially right to her face like that. "We can't choose a lot of things in life, but we do have a choice of how we deal with them. You didn't allow other's attitudes to stop you from a achieving their dreams. And I? I did. At least until someone came along to show me how wrong I was." Nick held up a finger to show that he was almost done. "And sometimes, even then, no matter how hard we try, we just have to realize that sometimes we can't do what we want without someone else's help. Which, last I checked, wasn't this our job? To help others?"

Judy let out a sigh. "It is, Nick," she agreed, "but I still don't see how making someone where a TAME collar is 'helping' them. Quite the opposite, in fact."

The fox grinned nervously at her. "Well, if you phrase it that way, then no, it isn't supposed to help."

"So why bring it up then?"

Nick was sensing that Judy was only getting more agitated, but he felt that he knew the way out now. "Well, when my shift ended, I was able to talk to Wolford briefly," he explained, "and from what he told me, I want to ask you a question: in your own opinion, do you think that Trigger would have preferred to stay in the station, or go out as he did while wearing that collar on?"

Judy hesitated. "I- well he did ask not to be returned to the station at one point. It was right after he got shocked again, and I had enough."

Nick smirked back at the bunny. "In Wolford's words, I think I remember hearing the term 'begged' when being told what happened. Is that an accurate description?"

"No! Well, not really. A little." Judy sighed, defeated. "Yes."

The fox's smirk fell. "Look, I'm not asking you to like the options being forced here," he said, "but what I am saying is, whether it's Trigger, or Count, or whoever really, if they need to choose between two undesirable outcomes, let them decide for themselves. Because as awful as it sounds, being allowed to chose the less terrible of two options can be the only blessing someone can look forward to."

Judy let out a groan and leaned back into the sofa. "This really sucks."

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "Oh how I would love to meet whoever thought those collars were a good idea."

Next to him, Judy raised an eyebrow. "If I remember correctly, sounds like Count and Trigger already knew whoever was responsible. Wasn't he a warthog or something?"

Nick chuckled. "Yeah, sure sounded like a real party fellow! Hope I never have to meet him. But hey," he grinned back at Judy. "Better than some maniacal conspiratorial sheep."

Judy's ears fell. "Nick!" She whined. "That's not fair! Bellweather knew how I was going to react at that press conference! She set me up! And I nearly forced all the predators in the city into those collars!" She let out a groan of despair as she sank into the sofa. "If only I wasn't so stupid..."

"Hey, Fluff. You realize that you just gave the answer to your own problem."

An eye opened to glance at the fox. "Nick..."

He held his paws out. "I'm serious. It wasn't your fault. Bellweather was a politician through and through – and that means knowing how to read and manipulate mammals. Plus, I doubt someone can just ring up truck loads of collars on a short notice. No, I suspect she had everything ready, and she just needed a good excuse to drop the domino, so to speak. And so when the fresh new cop finds all the missing mammals, there it is! Let's place her right in front of all the cameras and get a goon to ask the exact sort of question that will get a desired response out of her." Nick reached over and placed a paw on Judy's shoulder again. "Judy, you dumb and silly bunny… you are no more at fault for what happened than any of the mammals hit by the Nighthowler and turned savage. Do you really think the fear and mistrust of the city can seriously be blamed on them?" When Judy didn't answer, he then added, "don't tell me you forgot how much Zootopia worked to make sure to get across that the savage mammals were victims of the plot, and were not guilty for whatever they might have done. Wasn't it what the city did? Tell them all that 'hey, you might feel like you are responsible, but you're not'."

Judy sighed and sat back up. "Yeah, I guess so, Nick. I'll try not to let my emotions get in the way of all of this. But… I guess I just need some more time to think this through. And uh… thanks, Nick. For being such a friend." Her eyes fell on the plate of food she had gathered for herself, forgotten during her chat with her fox. "Sorry, totally forgot about that."

Nick followed her gaze towards the plate. "Ah, don't worry about that," he said as he reached over and picked the plate up. "I'll reheat it, don't you worry." As he stood up, he motioned at the laptop with his other paw. "While I'm doing that, see what movie you might want to watch. We still got time."

The bunny was even able to crack a smile at these instructions. "I thought you said you already found something to watch."

Nick laughed as he made his way to the kitchen. "So you were paying attention, Fluff! I lied about that. I needed cooking instructions." Even as he got the stove working, he could hear a certain faint reply of 'dumb fox'.

_Eh, guess she can have that one._

When he returned back to the sofa, warm food in his paws, he found Judy looking ready to eat and spirits, while perhaps not back up to their usual upbeat standards, considerably more improved than even just a few minutes before.

The laptop had a movie on it selected and ready to play.

Nick was half expecting some dumb rom-com to be waiting for him, as a sort of mindless mood lifter that he knew Judy liked, so he was even rather surprised to see the action movie she chose. "Seriously, Fluff, 'Top Gun'? Isn't that a bit… cliched?"

The bunny grinned as she reached out to grab her plate. "Well, if we are going to be watching over a pair of fighter pilots, I figure, why not see how they act? Call it homework if you want."

With a shrug, Nick sat down next to Judy. "You know how I feel about homework, Carrots. Plus, I highly doubt that movie is accurate for even getting an idea about- _umf_" He stopped talking when he found one of Judy's paws pressing on his mouth shut.

"Just be quiet and let us enjoy the movie, my dumb fox," the bunny answered with a smirk. "You asked me to choose, and I did." To complete her sentence, she pressed down on the play button, letting Nick's surprisingly good sound system to take over.

As the opening titles started to show, Nick realized something was still seriously off. Jumping off the sofa, he ran over to the wall.

And killed the lights.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Change of Pace**

Chief of police Bogo stared at his computer as he went to check his work email for any last minute news and updates before he will need to head down to do the morning roll call. It was all the usual that he had gotten used to over the years, but one email caught his eye. It was a message sent to him by that hare from the ZIA, agent Jack Savage. Clicking on the email, the buffalo wasn't surprised to see it password encrypted. Pausing to recall the agreed upon code, he typed it in and was rewarded by the appearance of the message. A quick glance at the clock told him that he still had time to read the email.

_To: "Adrian Bogo" . _

_From: "Jack Savage" J_Savage_ .gov_

_Subject: Update Regarding Recent Visit_

_WARNING: For viewing by subject named in "recipient" line only. Unauthorized access will be persecuted by the fullest extent of the law._

_Chief of Police Bogo,_

_I am reaching a standstill in my research on the two pilots ["Count" and "Trigger"] currently under your protection. Information into either one of them is scarce at best, and this is utilizing sources originating from both Urusia and Ocelotia. Despite knowing which squadron they belong to, and coming into contact with their direct superior officer, as well as contacts in the Ocelotian government, I am unable to receive the answers to my questions that I am looking for. Unfortunately, my currently available resources within the ZIA are reaching their limits as well. Here is what I have currently found that I feel I can safely share with you that will help you with determining on how to deal with the two._

_First: I have repeatedly come across reports of a fighter group flying an assortment of fighter aircraft that have their vertical stabilizers ('tails' as commonly described) marked by large white painted-on lines. I cannot tell if this is an individual group or if there are several like it, but:_

_Second: I strongly suspect that there is only one aircraft with three lines. While the reports I have been able to read are scattered across locations, times, as well as potentially conflicting information sourced from Urusian or Ocelotian reports, I am beginning to see a pattern. Ocelotion reports repeatedly tell of an increase of morale and performance if a fighter with three lines is spotted fighting for them. Conversely, Urusian reports repeatedly told of battles that were sure to win suddenly being swung into defeat upon the arrival of 'the pilot with the three strikes'. I was unable to find similar reports for aircraft without the three lines._

_Third: The Urusians don't know anything about these painted fighters, and the Ocelotians are very careful in hiding the true nature of this/these fighter group/s._

_It is my personal suspicion that the Ocelotians are fielding some sort of special forces/operations fighter squadron/s. This would explain the effort they are putting into hiding the identities of their pilots. I am not able to come up with an explanation for the painted lines other than for easy identification for Ocelotian forces, and a psychological impact on Urusians._

_On a brighter note, I believe I found what might be a previous squadron that 'Trigger' might have belonged to. They are currently involved with the fighting between the two countries, but I am hoping to get the cooperation of Ocelotia's ambassador in timing a visit while the squadron will be on leave. Hopefully within the next several days if possible. Perhaps talking to this squadron will yield some answers. Which also means that I might disappear without notice for a couple of days and will be unavailable for access._

_If this will be the case, and you will still need to get word to me, you can reach me through my partner, Agent Sky Winters (S_Winters_ .gov). __Make sure to encrypt any emails using the tool attached at the bottom of this email._

_One last thing.__ Last I heard, talks in getting the two pilots traded over have stalled. You might be watching over them for longer than previously assumed._

_Hope to see you soon with more information,_

_Jack Savage_

_Analyst, Zootopian Intelligence Agency, Untied States of Animalia_

Closing the email, Chief Bogo shook his head in annoyance before standing up. He can deal with Count and Trigger's logistical issues later. But for right now, there was a police station to run. As he gathered the materials he would need for the briefing, he cast one more look at the computer screen.

"Why was I the one to end up with this mess?" he asked no one in particular, shaking his head. Closing the email program, the buffalo left the office to make his way downstairs.

"Assignments for today, let's start off with..." Bogo adjusted the glasses on his nose, but it was mostly just for the effect of getting the entire bullpen to wait with dread and/or excitement for whatever plans he had for the officers for today. "Count, Trigger. Parking duty."

The silence of the room lasted for only a moment before the deer began to complain. Loudly. "What? You can't do that to us! We don't even answer to you!"

Bogo simply glanced up from his pad. "I checked the regulations. You don't need to be a badged officer to hand out parking tickets. Just need to be certified by the city for permission to do so. Which I have right here." Sure enough, he held out said paperwork in his other hoof as proof that he wasn't bluffing.

"Yeah? Well, we still don't have to listen to you!"

For someone famous for his incredibly short temper, Chief Bogo was sometimes even more intimidating when he was able to act as though he had the patience of a glacier. When he would not raise his voice, but instead talk in an almost bored demeanor. "Last I checked, which was this morning, I might add," he casually replied, "I believe the arrangement explicitly said that while the two of you are under my watch, you must also listen to what I tell you and do I say."

Bogo reached up for his glasses and used a corner of his uniform to clean off a smudge in the glass. "But as a non-citizen of this country, I guess you can indeed feel a difference of opinion. Though let me remind you that you are currently in this country without authorization, which I recall is a crime, and you are in the middle of a police station. Your cell is still waiting for you, should you choose to wait out the day in there." He returned the glasses to his nose. "I'll leave the choice up to you."

Since Fangmeyer and Wolford were still on their second day off for the week, Count was stuck next to Trigger and Nick and Judy's shared chair. Right in the front of the room closest to Bogo. The deer grunted and crossed his arms. "Fine!" he spat, "I'll ticket cars for you."

The buffalo leaned over the podium. "Good," he replied coldly, hinting at the fact that he wasn't going to waste any more time arguing with Count. "Now for actual assignments..."

The officers waited to be assigned their tasks for the day, with the rest of the morning briefing going out surprisingly normal despite the two mammals in the room that wouldn't be there on a regular day.

However, for the two smallest officers in the precinct, they waited for their assignment with a feeling of dread. Because if they had to cubsit the two-

"Wilde, Hopps. You'll be helping our two guests ticket cars today. Thank you for volunteering." Yup, there it was.

In order to hide his disappointment at their assigned task, Nick answered back with a sharp quip. "No problem, boss! Always glad to help encourage citizen to pay a bit more taxes."

Bogo gripped the podium, wood creaking underneath the strain of his strength. "Can it, Wilde! I'll leave it between you and Hopps to decide who goes with whom, but you all have your assignments. _Dismissed_!"

The room erupted into noise as everyone stood up to get on with their day. At the front, Nick got a certain sense of pride as he saw how Judy was able to intimidate both Trigger and Count, at the same time, just by glaring at them. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she also wasn't looking forward to spending the day ticketing cars. The deer was still fuming, but he wasn't successful in hiding his fear at the bunny's wrath.

"Gee, Carrots, I thought we're joining them for parking duty, not roasting them alive."

Judy took her glare away from the two pilots to look at her partner. "Nick, come on, you heard how Bogo spoke! They did something he didn't like, but because he can't send them off to do parking duty alone, we have to accompany them!" She looked back at the two, narrow eyes. Count tried to hide behind the shorter Trigger, if it was possible somehow. "Parking duty… Something for new cops to do, okay. A punishment for mild misbehavior to keep performance up, I can understand. But he never before _volunteered_ cops to parking duty before!" Looking around, she spotted Bogo still behind the counter gathering his things. Bounding over, the bunny had to clear her throat to get his attention. "Sir! Please, are we really required to accompany Count and Trigger on parking duty today?"

Bogo looked down at Judy, eyebrow raised. He wasn't able to recall before when she would complain so readily about whatever work he made her do. Not even days behind the desk doing paperwork earned such complaining from her. "The two of them earned themselves a day of parking duty, Hopps," she chief explained calmly, "but you know perfectly well that I can't let them go off and do it on their own. I am pushing it as is by only assigning you and Wilde to them rather than forcing another pair to the task."

That confirmed Judy's suspicion that Bogo didn't choose the parking duty randomly for Count and Trigger. "Okay, sir, I understand," she answered, "just disappointed. Actually, what did they do?"

The buffalo grinned. "Ask them." With a ruffle of papers, the chief grabbed everything he needed and left the room without another word.

Nick was busy watching the interaction between Judy and Bogo when he felt a tug on his sleeve and turned to find himself looking at Trigger. The coyote stared back, ears down and a rather embarrassed expression on his muzzle. "What's up, Three Strikes?"

"I uh, aren't you going to show me where to get the gear?"

"Oh, yeah, just a second." He motioned for Judy to follow him. "Carrots, help me get Strikes and Grumpy here get acquainted with their meter maid uniforms."

Judy looked over to where Count was clearly displeased with the name Nick had given him. "Nick, I believe 'Grumpy' has a name." Actually, did 'Count' count as a name? Never mind that. "Take Count to the lockers. I want to talk to Trigger."

With a shrug, Nick lead Count out of the room. "What ever you say, Fluff. This way, Grumpy." When the two left, the only ones remaining in the room were Judy and Trigger. Turning her attention to the coyote, Judy's foot started to tap at the ground with impatience. "So, Trigger, is there something I should know about why you are being assigned with parking duty?"

Trigger stared out the door where Nick and Count had left from. "Why me?" he whined as a reply to Judy's question, "Can't you talk to Count instead?" When she didn't answer, her foot still tapping the floor in a steady rhythm, he chuckled nervously. "Yeah, okay… I guess we deserve it," he admitted, "Count and I sorta came up with… uh, a game of sorts. Your chief didn't approve when he found out."

_Oh sweet cheese and crackers_.

At the mention of a 'game', and the fact that the two were now saddled with parking duty, Judy felt that what she was going to hear next, that she wasn't going to like it. "So what sort of game..?" she urged on, twirling a finger in the air to further her point. At the moment, she felt like she was back at home helping out at running the Hopps farm at Bunnyburrow, scolding one of her many younger siblings after they misbehaved.

"Well, I guess it's not a secret around here that I am… uh, kinda bad with the whole getting shocked thing," Trigger continued to explain, scratching at his neck idly as he spoke. "And you know Count, how he can get. We were with the other two cops, uh, Wolford and Fangmeyer, and we were all waiting on dinner. It was taking a while, so we were rather bored as you can imagine..." The coyote snorted in mild amusement as he recalled whatever had happened. "So Count decided to just, I don't know how to phrase it, just joke around like he does. 'Hey, Trigger, mammal who shocks the other the most wins'. And we just… took turns. See if we can think of something to say that will make the other zap themselves." Despite still grinning, Trigger was also appearing rather ashamed now as he looked at Judy. "I lost. I know, big surprise. But I put up a good fight! Even Count was impressed that I lasted as long as I did. I'm getting better, you know, at well, if not hiding my emotions, then at least not getting zapped over them." When he fished the story, Trigger's grin turned into an annoyed scowl as he looked away from the bunny. "Of course, your Chief Bogo was... less than amused when he found out. Guess either Wolford or Fangmeyer told what happened. Or both of them, doesn't matter really." His gaze returned to Judy, eyes wider than before. "Th-they did try to stop us," he hastily added, "it's not like they just sat there and let it happen. But short of sewing our mouths shut, there wasn't much they could do. Call it stubbornness from me and Count if you want, but once we started, we didn't end until, well, all right, I admitted defeat after a rather… heated comment and the buzz that followed it. Hurt quite a bit, actually."

Judy was only able to stare back at Trigger, trying to comprehend what he was telling her. The two days off she had with Nick, she had struggled to listen to his advice and come up with a way that would allow her to tolerate the presence of those devices. And these two turned the collars into a _gam__e__? _"Why in the world and all the plants on it would you _do that_?" When he didn't answer, her foot, which had stopped tapping for the duration of Trigger's explanation, started to tap again, now with even a greater speed than before. "Trigger? Care to explain _that_?"

The coyote looked around nervously, but didn't find an escape route away from her angry gaze. "Well, you know how these things go," he tried to explain, "it's just harmless fun, that's all."

Judy had to clench her paws into fists in order to prevent her from doing something she would regret. "TAME collars are not 'harmless fun', Trigger!" she hissed, "they are very dangerous devices! What would have happened if it had gone off at a high setting? Explain to a doctor that you burned your neck because of some 'harmless fun'?"

Trigger rubbed his neck nervously. Judy couldn't help but notice that the fur was starting to display signs of being matted from the accumulating hours spent with a collar on. "But it doesn't really hurt," he answered, "it's like… a bug bite. Or a wasp sting. Nothing you really even notice if you get distracted enough."

Why did Judy feel like he was simply trying to divert the problem away from the root cause? "That's not what I asked, Trigger," she warned coldly. "I asked why you thought that turning those collars into a game was _ever_ a good idea!" To her surprise, Trigger's look of worry and embarrassment morphed instantly into one of anger.

"Look, Hopps, if nothing else, know this," he grumbled out, "Count knows exactly what to say if he really wanted me to get mad. And I mean _mad_. And for that matter, I also know exactly how to get him to switch his collar from green to red just like that." He snapped his fingers to prove his point. "So I guess the point I am trying to make, well, is that, okay, perhaps not 'mindless fun, as you were, but... it's hardly Russian roulette. There are worse ways to let off some steam." He let out his own sigh of frustration. "Personal experience Hopps: don't ask me or Count to tell you about what some of the guys would do to 'chill out'." He leaned down to be more at Judy's level. "Compared to some of that stuff, these collars are no worse than the pain you can expect from a day out in the fields picking carrots." Examining Judy closely, Trigger shrugged as he returned to his normal posture. "Or did you Animalian Big City bunny never enjoy the experience of a day of manual labor?"

Judy's eyes narrowed. "That's getting dangerously close to sounding specieist, Trigger," she warned, "I expect that from Count, but not from you."

The two mammals stared at each other, neither one of them saying a word.

Trigger broke the stalemate. "Anything else?" he asked, "I thought we were supposed to ticket parked cars today."

Ironically enough, that reminded Judy of one of the main reasons why she wanted to talk to Trigger in the first place, before getting completely sidetracked. "Actually, yes, about that," motioning for the coyote to follow her, she exited the bullpen and lead the two of them down to the changing area. There wasn't a need for privacy for this part. "I wanted you to stay with Nick for today."

"But aren't you the one usually assigned to watch over me?" Trigger asked from behind her. "Ni-Wilde's bigger than you, just as Count is larger than I am. It makes sense for the two of them to be paired up."

This time, Judy knew that Trigger wasn't trying to offend her, but she still felt that familiar pang of annoyance at being reminded of her small size, and more specifically, the constant struggle she had to deal with to prove that her size wasn't a problem. Looking behind her, Judy flashed a smile. "What? You worried about me?" When a flustered Trigger stammered for a reply, she cut him off with a back-pawed wave. "If you think one 'Grumpy' is going to get the better of me, then I fear I might have let off the wrong impression on you." Her grin faded as her voice took on a more serious tone. "As you just told me yourself, you need to work on controlling your emotions, as long as you will continue to wear those collars. Am I correct?"

"...Yeah." Even without looking, Judy could tell that Trigger wasn't happy to actually voice the conclusion out loud.

"Then while issuing parking tickets, talk to Nick. Let him help you," Judy continued to explain. "Nick, he… he can get rather annoying at times with how dense he is. Sometimes it's useful that you can't tell what he's thinking or feeling, but other times it would be nice if he can open up more. But what I am saying is that I think there is something you can learn from him." From behind her, she heard Trigger sigh after a short break.

"Hopps, I'm twenty-eight. Older than you, if I am guessing correctly. I don't need someone to hold my paws like some pup."

"Trigger, I wasn't trying to offend you. I'm just saying that it might be a good idea for you to talk to Nick. I don't want to see you get hurt because of those collars."

"Well excuse me for not being an emotionless brick" Trigger growled back, "not like there's a war going on or anything. That I was fighting in less than a week ago."

Judy stopped to look back at the coyote, trying to figure out why he was suddenly so hostile. She had to step out of the way as he walked right past her. "Trigg-"

"_Forget it_, Hopps!" he shouted back, not even bothering to turn his head in her direction. "Are we going to ticket those cars today or what?"

She had to break into a run to catch up. "Trigger-!"

Again without looking, the coyote cut her off with a shouted reply. "Fine, I'll go with the damned fox!"

Judy blinked as she stopped chasing after him again in surprise. That wasn't what she wanted to say, but the bunny also doubted that he was willing to listen to what she _really_ wanted to say. To say that this wasn't the direction that Judy had wanted the conversation with Trigger to go was a major understatement. As she raced after him, she thought back to where it all went wrong. A horrible feeling of guilt came over her when she remembered that it was her getting angry at him in the first place that caused everything to escalate. Catching up, she tried to apologize, but he simply brushed her off with an angry snarl.

With a heavy sigh, Judy lead the way in silence until they reached the changing rooms. Count and Nick were already there, ready to go and both looking curiously at the the animosity between the two mammals.

Deciding that Count could show the other pilot the rather simple procedure of putting on the meter-maid uniform, Nick took Judy aside to find out what was going on. "Okay, Carrots, lay it on me. Why was Three Strikes looking at you like he was ready to drop a bomb over your head?" He smirked down at her. "Doesn't take a lot to figure out that your little 'talk' didn't go too well."

"Nick, please! Don't start with your antics now." With a nervous glance to make sure that no one else was listening in, Judy quickly explained what she had wanted to get out of talking to the coyote, and what had went down instead.

Nick waited patiently for her to finish talking, but there was no mistaking the casual smirk on his muzzle. "Sounds like a classic case of the clashing egos to me," he finally said when Judy finished talking. He then placed a paw on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "Tell you what? It really is a good idea if you go with Count today. Mix things up a bit."

Judy nodded, starting to feel better. It was good to know that she could trust her partner, even if it was for something as trivial as this. "Nick, since you're a fox and all, I was hoping that you could talk to Trigger today about the collars. While the two of you are out and about on parking duty. Tell him about your 'never let 'em see that they get to you' and all that."

"Sure, I can try," Nick replied with a casual nod. "Though let me warn you: there's a difference between not letting others see what you are feeling, and not actually feeling anything. With the TAME collars, I doubt hiding the appearance of emotions will do much, but hey, I didn't live some twenty years on the streets without learning a couple of oldies but goldies!" He let go of Judy's shoulder, returning his paw to his side. "Tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind spending the day with the coyote," he concluded with a grin, "fellow small canine, and a foreigner to boot. Could be interesting. Speaking of which, shouldn't we get back and actually start our parking duty?"

The bunny returned his grin. "Thanks, Nick. You're the best!"

The fox chuckled in reply. "Just doing my job, Fluff!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Drone in a Box**

Officer James Wolford looked at his phone as it beeped at him with a new message. He gave it a quick glance before addressing Dahlia Fangmeyer, who was currently occupied with driving the police cruiser they were both currently sitting in. "Agent Winters has just arrived at the dockyard and will be waiting for us," he informed the tiger, "they are saying that the suspicious shipping container has been isolated and is surrounded by dock guards. So we don't need to hurry." He looked at the dash of the car where a map was leading them to their destination. While Bogo made sure that all of officers knew by heart the location of most of Zootopia's main landmarks, today they were not driving to the main entrance of the docs but a smaller side street in, hence the guided map. An added benefit was that it also gave an estimated time of arrival. "Should be there in less than five minutes anyways," the wolf commented, "not like we'll save much time by driving faster."

Fangmeyer simply hummed in approval, keeping her eyes on the road as she drove.

Wolford let her concentrate on finding their way, especially as the familiar route to the docs changed with a quick turn away from the main entrance. The wolf watched as towers of shipping containers passed his window, wondering what the two officers can expect to do over here. Unfortunately, they weren't given much information in the bullpen. Just that they were to meet up with a ZIA agent Winters.

When the tiger made the last turn off the street and into the docs proper, Wolford got his first glimpse of said agent. They were wearing a dark suit, but there was no hiding the white fur or the general size and shape of the agent. "Oh, hey, check it out, Dahlia," Wolford commented upon spotting Winters, waving at them to drive over, "a snow fox. Not someone you see every day."

Fangmeyer grinned as she parked the car. "What's the matter, James?" she asked, her tone teasing with amusement, "expecting someone taller?"

Wolford blinked. "I- I don't really know what I was expecting," he admitted, "just not a fox. Because well, you know, the whole… never mind. Actually, I'm sure Wilde wouldn't mind hearing about this. Another fox? And in the ZIA on top of that?" He trailed off as Fangmeyer finished parking and killed the engine.

Agent Winters was already waiting for the two officers as they exited the cruiser. "Officers," she greeted, "I'm agent Skye Winters. You can call me Agent Winters. Or, if you prefer, just Skye even, which I actually prefer." She reached out with a paw, offering it to shake with the two ZPD officers.

Fangmeyer was the first to shake paws with the fox, giving her a curious look-over. "Officer Dahlia Fangmeyer," the tiger said with a formal smile. "But with all do respect, why the lack of formality with names?"

Skye grinned and winked at Fangmeyer. "Because no one expects it," she replied, then offered her paw to Wolford. The wolf shook her paw and introduced himself, after which she gave an excited clap. "Excellent, let's get to it!" Taking the lead, she began to walk towards the towers and walls of colorful storage containers, the two officers staying close behind her. "While we walk over to the ISO box we are interested in, any questions before we get there?" she asked, looking over her shoulder.

From behind, Fangmeyer noted how even though Skye wasn't using a map of any sort, she seemed to know the way to wherever they were going through the maze of containers. "Actually, I do have a question, Age- err, Skye," she said, stumbling for a moment over the use of the informal first name, "why us? Doesn't the ZIA have more agents they can send out with you? We are just ZPD officers, after all. We don't normally deal with these types of issues. What I mean is, something like this is a bit out of our jurisdiction, isn't it?"

"Yes it is, and yes, normally they would provide more help," Skye answered back, "including my partner. You've met my partner, right? Jack Savage."

"We did briefly." Fangmeyer replied. "Only once, for that matter. Where is he anyways?" As she asked, the tiger was starting to develop a feeling of, while perhaps not dread, but a certain type of wariness that was telling her that this was all going to be related to those two pilots, Count and Trigger.

"Jack's out of the country," Skye answered casually. "Tracking down some answers to some questions we have, that's all."

As she thought about it some more, Fangmeyer had to conclude that her feeling about how all of this was all related was not so much a feeling as much as the logical conclusion of what information she had available. "But that didn't really answer my question. Why are we needed here?"

Skye walked around a corner and pointed at an isolated shipping container. "See that?" It was hard not to notice it – along with being the only container to be sitting on the ground and alone, it was also already surrounded by a few dock workers, no doubt keeping an eye out and protecting it. "It was supposed to stay on the ship, but got unloaded to here by accident along with some cargo that was destined for here. And get this: that's a Urusian container."

From behind, Wolford snorted in disbelief. "Oh, come on now, that doesn't make any sense!" he complained loudly, "those two countries are at war! Am I really supposed to think that Ocelotia is simply going to allow Urusia to send in cargo despite what's going on?"

The fox shrugged with a grin. "Things are bad if the news are to be believed, but I don't think the two countries are quite at the total war stage of conflict yet. So until they do more than attack one another with air or naval forces, I think there are merchants on both sides who would rather do business instead. Make profit, not war and all that."

"That's just stupid!" Wolford grunted. "They are quite literally killing each other, but others just want to carry on with… business as usual?" As he spoke, a low growl started to emanate from his throat.

Fangmeyer cast a raised eyebrow at her partner, noting how agitated he was getting at this information. "James, relax. We don't know what's going on here yet."

"But-!"

"But nothing!" Wolford instantly fell quiet when Fangmeyer raised her voice at him. "Unless you are suddenly an expert on international trade, I would appreciate you focusing on our job instead." The tiger returned her attention to Skye, who remained silent through this little argument. "You were saying, Agent Winters?"

"Wolford has a point," Skye replied instead, "even if you are selling regular goods, shipping them in from a county yours is currently at war with doesn't make for good publicity. Most companies would simply halt the selling of whatever they have that requires the trading and wait the war out before starting again. But that's not the important issue." She pointed at the container again, or more specifically, now that they were closer to it, to a logo on the side. "If this was just a regular shipping container misplaced by mistake, the port's duty would be to simply put it back. Simply put, as long as the ship isn't doing anything illegal, which it currently isn't, Animalia can't touch it, or whatever part of its cargo that isn't destined for Animalian receiving. Unless that cargo falls under a very strict list of contraband and inspection requirements."

Fangmeyer looked at the logo. Gründer Industries. "That name doesn't sound Urusian," she commented.

Skye nodded. "That's because it isn't. It's Belkan. Or German, if you want, since they used to be part of the same country until after the Second World War, but still a distance away from both Urusia and Ocelotia. But..." she raised a finger, "a well known arms dealer for counties world wide. On the level, for the most part. Even Animalia, while we don't out-right buy Gründer's fighter aircraft, we do cooperate time to time in developing specific components. But you can guess where this is going. I was called into here when the dock discovered a Gründer shipping container on an Urusian ship, bound for Ocelotia. Sounds suspicious, doesn't it?"

Wolford sighed. "I still don't get how Ocelotia would be simply okay with this."

Skye shrugged. "Perhaps they simply don't know. Didn't we get surprised when an Ocelotian airliner that went down over this city turned out to be a military cargo plane?" She cast a wink at the two officers, "as the two of you are more than aware. Speaking of which," she pointed at them and then at the ground, a stern expression on her muzzle. "I hope I don't have to explain myself, but not a word to anyone here about that."

Fangmeyer smiled and nodded. "Don't worry. Officer Wolford and I are more than capable of not saying anything, Agent," she reassured. Next to her, James nodded in agreement.

The white fox let out a sigh. "While we are on the subject, and still out of earshot..." She looked around to confirm that they were still far enough away not to be overheard, stopping her walk just to make sure. "This is why I asked for you two to be here. Not for extra muscle, I doubt that will be needed. But observe everything you can, try to remember everything, but at least for now, no recording. Not even written notes. I'll explain later." Resuming their walk over to the container, it didn't take too long for them to get close enough for one of the doc workers to run over to greet them.

"You must be the government assistance we called for," the beaver commented to Skye, "container's secured and isolated, but we didn't open it or even scan it with the external X-ray, ma'am. But it's ready for whatever you want to be done to it." He glanced at the two ZPD officers with a nervous expression, a large canvas bag clutched tightly in his paws. "If I may, but is there a reason for cops to be here? Might make some of the guys nervous." He gulped before adding quickly, "not that we are doing anything illegal, but with this container here, well, I hope we didn't accidentally break any laws. It was all an accident, you know!"

Skye chuckled before waving him off. "If you only did what we asked you to, then there is nothing to worry about. Don't worry, Officers Fangmeyer and Wolford are here to assist me personally, and not to arrest any of you." She grinned at the beaver. "Unless you give them a reason to, of course."

The beaver gulped again. "I uh, we'll keep that in mind," he said. "So where would you like to start?"

Skye looked at the shipping container. "Keep it as it is for now," she replied, "I want to first talk to the captain of the ship if I can. And the dock manager as well."

The dock worker nodded. "They're both up at the boss's office. Let me take you there." He reached down into his bag and, after a bit of rummaging, pulled out three hardhats that were sized for the two officers and agents. "Glad I was able to guess the right sizes from a distance," he admitted, "safety regulations require everyone on the dockside to wear these." Closing up the now empty bag, he let out a slight grin. "No exceptions. Sorry."

He waited until he was certain that everyone had their hardhats on properly before leading them past the storage containers, occasionally shouting orders at another worker as they walked. The beaver took them over to one of the few permanent buildings on the dock and up a flight of stairs to a set of closed metal doors. Knocking a couple of times to announce their presence, the group didn't have to wait for very long before a voice form inside told them that they can enter. The beaver motioned them inside. "Just follow the hallway, it's impossible to get lost," he explained, "but I have to return to work, so this is where I split from you guys." He turned to leave, but stopped suddenly. "Oh, and I almost forgot, but the boss… try not to let him get on your nerves. He knows his stuff, but he also has some very strong opinions about… uh," he glanced nervously between the three mammals he was just leading, "p-predators. He doesn't like you guys," the beaver finally admitted sheepishly. "So if he starts talking funny, just ignore him." He shrugged. "Just though you might want to know. Well, I have things I need to get to, so, good day everyone." The beaver turned and hurried down the stairs, looking like he was very glad to be leaving the embarrassing situation.

Skye watched the worker hurry off before returning her attention to the door. "Well, let's not keep them waiting," she muttered, and opened the doors, motioning for the two ZPD officers to get inside.

Inside they were greeted by a burly cape buffalo, wearing greasy plain coveralls, who glared at the three with obvious disdain. "When I called for extra help on this matter, I didn't think they would dump on me two pred coppers," he muttered coldly, glaring at the two ZPD officers before noticing the smaller fox in front of them. "You are with the ZIA I was told to expect? Didn't think they would ever be desperate enough to hire a fox." He snorted in mild amusement. "But then again, this domestic stuff is no doubt the worst you can handle, so it allows real mammals the freedom to do _real_ work. No wonder the ZIA's been getting such terrible press lately."

With a carefree grin that would look right at home when being worn by Wilde, Skye ignored the buffalo's bad attitude and extended a paw to shake. "Skye Winters, ZIA." She didn't even blink when he refused to return the gesture, and simply let her paw fall back to her side. "Let me cut to the chase: I'm sure you are a very busy mammal, and I'm also sure that we are wasting your time here. So if you can help us get this thing over with, the sooner we will be out from under your nose and let you get back to your… _real work_." Her grin didn't falter when her comment earned her an angry snort from the much larger mammal.

"You're right," the buffalo replied almost as an after thought, "you are wasting my time. Let's get this thing over with. This way." Turning around to face the interior of the building, the buffalo walked off without even waiting to see that he was being followed.

The interior was rather a rather bare industrial prefabricated affair, only occasionally being broken up by a picture hanging on the wall. Most of the pictures were of ships or aerial shots of the docks, though a few even showed pictures of the workers who worked at the site.

As they walked, Wolford leaned over so that he can whisper to Fangmeyer without the buffalo overhearing him. "Wonder if he's any relation of Bogo's."

Fangmeyer had to cover her mouth to suppress a chuckle before successfully sending her wolf partner a quick glare to get him to focus back on the task at hand. He gave her a slight shrug, but didn't press the matter further.

The corridor gave way room that looked like a mix between a conference center and a dining area. Sitting on a chair with lots of papers strewn out in front of him was a marmot, wearing a woolen sweater that immediately gave him away as a sailor.

"This is the captain of the ship that brought over the cargo," the buffalo said in a bored expression, "I had him bring all the paperwork relating to the container we found. There isn't much."

Skye eyed the mess of papers on the table as the captain barely acknowledged the newcomers in the room. "That doesn't look like 'isn't much'," she commented.

The marmot spoke up, attention still focused on the few papers he had clutched in his paws. "Is paperwork for all cargo," he explained in a rather thick accent, "I try to explain to buffalo: Crew and I are only simple seafarers. Don't choose cargo or destination. Job only to transport containers, not check what inside. We did nothing wrong."

With a sigh, Skye grabbed a chair and sat down next to the marmot. "I'll be deciding on that. Here, let me see what you have specifically on that container out there." To his credit, despite the mess, the captain was able to hand her over the papers right away, which she began to read, muttering comments to herself as she went along. "Says cargo inside the container is high-tech industrial equipment. Supplier is..." She squinted and read over a line once more. "No, that can't be right. Says the company of origin is North Ocelotia Industries. But that's just another name for Gründer Industries. What are they doing selling to Urusia just to send it all back to Ocelotia?" Setting the paper down, she glanced over to the buffalo. "How quickly can you scan the container?"

The dock manager grunted. "Five, ten minutes. Just need to drive the equipment over."

Skye nodded. "Do it. I want to see what's inside right away."

As the buffalo gave the appropriate commands through his radio to the crew outside, the ship captain looked offended at being excluded from the conversation. "Please, we have tight schedule. Surely you can not let us load container back to ship and we then set sail?"

"Captain," With one word, Skye was now using a tone that eased with authority and power. Even the buffalo blinked in surprise at how easily she was able to rein in control of the entire room. "If the scan comes up clean, then we will mark this all down as a simple mistake." She glanced down at the paper, drawing everyone else's attention to it as well. "But I suspect that there is something amiss here. If that will be the case, we will deal with that when we will see what it will be. Either way, a little bit of patience will go a long way, no?"

The captain glanced at the two ZPD officers, clearly nervous, and gulped before steadying his voice. "Very well. We scan the cargo."

"Good." Reaching across the table for some more tables, Skye proceeded to wait the time by reading up more about the ship and its cargo.

The marmot helped her out as much as he could, mostly by providing her with whatever she was looking for, or even occasionally, translating the odd bit of Urusian text. The buffalo watched the entire group with barely hidden contempt, while Wolford and Fangmeyer simply stood to the side and waited in silence. It was fine, they were used to waiting when the situation required it.

Then suddenly, the buffalo's radio crackled with the news they were waiting for. "_Container's ready for scanning, boss. __Can we proceed?_"

Agent Winters looked up from the paperwork. "Do it," she ordered.

With a grunt, the buffalo answered the call. "Proceed with scan." Returning the radio to his side, he pointed down another hallway leading away from the room. "This way, we will see the results updating in real time." Barely waiting for the others to get up from the table, he walked down the hall and turned into a rather small room filled with computers and screens.

One of the larger screens was displaying a pre-rendered outline of a standard shipping container, and a line scrawled slowly across it horizontally, revealing the contents of their mystery ISO box.

Wolford watched the screen, not recognizing what was being revealed to them. Trying to get a better idea, he glanced at the others in the room, trying to read their reactions. He didn't like it.

Sky was frowning with clear anger. Next to her, the ships captain muttered a curse underneath his breath, crossing himself several times as he did so. The buffalo dock manager was shaking his head, hoofs covering his eyes.

Not wanting to feel like the fool one out, Wolford chose to remain silent and hoped that the others would explain what the scan was showing. He didn't have to wait for long.

"...Captain..." Skye's voice was strained as she spoke, fighting to keep her emotions in check. "Can you or anyone here care to explain to me how this container filled with 'high tech industrial equipment'…" She let out a long sigh to steady her nerves. "Can anyone tell me why we are looking at a _armed_ _combat drone_?" She let out another frustrated sigh. "...Anyone?_"_

Wolford looked over at the scan again, and now that he knew what he was looking at, started to see the parts that his eyes failed to recognize before. As a ZPD officer, he wasn't unfamiliar with drones, but his dealings with them was far more involved with giving stern lectures to nervous teenagers and their careless use of cameras-on-flying-buzz-saws of death. What he was looking at now was much more of a regular piloted machine, if he can call it that. The scans were showing a very angular drone, one barely able to fit inside the container it was in. The wings had to be folded over, but there was no mistaking what the long cylinders were. He played enough games as a pup and saw enough movies to recognize those anywhere. The wolf felt a pang of fear hit him when he saw the missiles -numerous and fearsome looking, compounded by the knowledge that he was standing not too far away from them. "That's- There's no way that's legal, is there?" he asked. Well, good that part of his cop brain was still working as the rest was still trying to decipher the rest of the scans.

"No," came Skye's cold reply. "That right there is a clear violation of countless of international laws at least. I can't even begin to explain how illegal that there is." She let out yet another sigh. "But I don't want to bring in a lawyer just to spend several days being told exactly which laws are broken, how, and how many of them. But what I do want… I know what I want. Follow me."

Turning quickly, she left the room and lead the group back to the main room where the papers still lay scattered on the table. Grabbing them all, she quickly started shuffling though them, pen in paw, and marking down notes across several of the pages. "Captain, listen closely," she spoke as she continued to flip through the pages, "this right here is going to put you into serious trouble. Your best bet in getting out of this in any shape or form is to cooperate with us. Starting now."

The marmot barely blinked. "But… I did not know," he replied back, voice barely above a whisper. "We just a cargo vessel… Not involved in war. We did not know... Did not mean to cause trouble..."

Skye only looked at him briefly before holding out several of the pages she marked. "That is not up to me to decide. I am going to repeat myself: you want to look good in the eyes of Animalia, you will need to cooperate with us. Starting with this." She showed him her marks on the papers. "These are all boxes I am suspicious of. They are to be unloaded, scanned, and if found not to contain any contraband, will be returned to the ship. But anything we find wrong, we will be confiscating. That includes that container out there that was just scanned. Do I make myself clear?"

The captain was able to get himself to take a look at the marks. "These lists… Will take days to unload. Cargo scattered across entire ship!" he protested. "We supposed to leave today!"

"Captain," Skye warned, "your schedule became null and void the moment that scan started. The question now is not when you will leave, but are you going to help us or not?"

The marmot looked at the agent, eyes wide with fear. "We help! We will help!" he stammered.

"Good." Skye got up and began to start walking towards the exit of the building. "Excuse me, I need to make some very important phone calls. Shouldn't take too long, I hope." She was about to turn and leave before she quickly added, "as for all of you… just stay here for now. Officers Fangmeyer and Wolford, make sure that no one here tries to make any calls of their own. Until I come back, no one is to talk to anyone outside in any manner. Am I understood?" This time, she did turn and leave, walking quickly out of the room.

Fangmeyer took the initiative. "You heard her. No phones," she glanced over at the buffalo, "and no radios either. So lets all sit down and wait patiently, and no, that's not a request." She looked over at the buffalo, the only one in the room who wasn't doing as told. "Is there something wrong with what I said?" she asked, staring down at the manager despite being the smaller of the two mammals.

The buffalo glared back at the officer. "This is my dock, chomper," he hissed back, "I don't have to listen to you or your mutt friend."

Despite his harsh tone and even worse language, Fangmeyer wasn't in the ZPD for nothing, her expression unchanging despite his hostility towards her. In their silent battle of wills, it was the buffalo who was the first to relent. With an angry grunt, he sat down at the table, glaring at Fangmeyer and Wolford as he fumed at being ordered about in his own workplace by simple cops.

The marmot captain, for his part, looked like he was in the middle of a nervous breakdown, eyes wide and gazing at the papers in front of him. Wolford eyed the large rodent with a feeling of guilt and sympathy – his years on the force taught him a lot about reading mammals, and he had the strongest of suspicions that this captain genuinely had no idea about the dangerous cargo he was carrying aboard his ship.

Several minutes later, Agent Skye Winters returned. "Captain," she announced, "it has been decided. The ship and its cargo are being impounded by Animalia for breach of international law. We will be working together with representatives from both Ocelotia and Urusia, but until then, the ship will not be leaving port. Any attempt to leave will be designated as an act of violence and dealt with accordingly."

The captain didn't say anything for a while. "What of the crew?" he eventually asked.

Skye crossed her arms. "They will be kept on board the ship under armed guard, helping us with dealing with the contraband cargo. If they are to be found innocent of wrongdoing, they might even be allowed ashore and into the city of Zootopia, but I can't guarantee it. And again, I have to strongly emphasize: that is only if you and your crew will be determined to be not guilty of any international law violations. This decision, I can tell you right away, is not going to be up to me. In a few minutes, this whole dock will be crawling with loads of mammals whose job is going to be to clean this whole mess up. That is also where my direct involvement here will end, so whatever you will want to say, I recommend you save it for my replacement when they will show up."

She was about to say something else when her phone beeped at her. Glancing at the device, she let out an annoyed groan. "This is important. Stay here." Just like that, she was gone again.

Wolford took the silence in the room to try and clear his mind out by going through all of the information he had just only barely glimpsed at. Sure, he was seeing why Agent Winters wanted him and Fangmeyer here with her, but as a ZPD cop, he was also feeling completely out of his league. To use Hopps' own words, his job was to make "the world a better place", even if it was only restricted to the areas of Zootopia that were under the jurisdiction of Precinct One. But this stuff? Combat drones in shipping containers? He knew something was wrong, but he would be darned to know where to even start with pointing out what. Hopefully, as long as Skye won't ask him to help out in that department, then he should be fine.

His thoughts were interrupted by the return of the white fox, a large moose behind her, dressed in a similar dark suit as her. "Everyone, this is Agent Mooseport. He will be taking over running operations on the dock regarding all matters with this case. As of now, you will answer to him or anyone else under his command. Am I understood?" The others in the room quietly acknowledged the news, after which Skye flashed a grin. "Splendid! Mooseport, the buffalo here is the dock manager in charge. The marmot here is the captain I was briefing you on. I'll let you take over from here. Officers Fangmeyer, Wolford, with me."

The two cops hurried to keep up with Skye as she briskly walked down the hall back outside. "I can't say for certain, but I am fearing that this whole thing will blow up around us to be much bigger than it seems to be even already," she told them as they walked. "These drones… We suspected for a while that something like this might have been going on, but we never had any proof until now. Regulations on inspections are different when the ship doesn't unload the cargo before sailing off to a different destination. But as for what you saw today, consider this conversation a strict verbal NDA. If Bogo asks, you can tell him because he is your direct superior, but not a word to anyone else." Even as they exited the building and donning back on their hard-hats, she lead them past the storage container rather than towards it. Sure enough, there were plenty of mammals now rigging it up for transport, who knows where to. Skye had to talk louder now to be heard over the noise. "Because of the incident with the transport crash, you can be sure that we at the ZIA will be in contact with the ZPD. Because of that, I will need you to be my contacts there. And yes, I did clear this with Chief Bogo first. He also cleared Hopps and Wilde to help out if they will also be needed."

Skye stopped and looked around to make sure that the three of them were all alone. When she was certain that they weren't going to be overheard, she resumed talking, thought now at a much lower volume. "This new problem for now is separate. As far as Count and Trigger are concerned, don't deal with them any differently than as you did before. But as long as we have them around, let's use them. You can expect an email from me later today, it will contain questions I want you to ask them, as well as other instructions. For what it's worth, try to treat this just like any other case you work on. With any luck, you won't even have to deal with press or politicians any more than you would normally. Sound good?"

Fangmeyer answered for the both of them. "Sure, I guess. I don't see any problems with it as long as Bogo's fine with it." Next to her, Wolford nodded in agreement.

The fox grinned back. "Great! On other, less serious topics, what did you think about that dock manager? Never gave us his name, even. Does have a mouth on him."

Wolford glared at the ground. "Why do I get the feeling that he would vote for Bellweather again if he had the chance to?"

Fangmeyer grinned at her partner. "Because he's a specieist jerk?"

Skye nodded. "Yep. He sure is." She took her phone out, but this time it was simply to take a look at the time. "Gee, it's getting rather late. Who's hungry?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Questioning**

Wolford let out a long sigh as he stared at his computer monitor, and more specifically, at the email he was reading from Agent Skye. And more specifically, the apology tacked on at the very end asking for some results to be delivered as soon as possible. As in, today.

It was already late in the day and the wolf was looking forward to going home and relaxing.

But it wasn't like he joined the police force to be lazy. So with a heavy heart, and already knowing the answer, he opened his mouth to ask the simple question. "Hey, Dahlia? Think we got time to go and look into this?"

Next to him, Fangmeyer was looking at her own copy of the document. "Considering that both Count and Trigger are here in the station, I don't see why we can't do this now." With a few keystrokes, she brought up the report for the day that she was working on. Making sure to save her progress, she muttered, "I know Bogo's gonna chew us about not turning this in today, but there's no way that I am going to finish this _and_ get Agent Skye's task here done today. But, well, he did tell us that helping her was, I quote him, 'of higher priority', so if he starts to complain, I hope that I can convince to give us some slack."

Wolford blinked. "You hope?"

"Yeah, well, what can I say? You know how Bogo can get sometimes, James."

Another sigh. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Okay, let's get this thing over with. Hopefully it won't take too long." He stood up, Fangmeyer also rising from her seat next to him. Then he realized something. "Actually, do we actually know if the two are here now? What where they doing anyways that Bogo would approve of?"

Fangmeyer grinned and even chuckled a bit. "Word from Clawhauser is that Bogo sent them off to the academy to test their physical capabilities. It's the off season for new recruits anyways, so there was no schedule conflicts."

Wolford also grinned despite wincing in empathy. "Major Friedkin?" He asked.

"The one and only." The tiger's face grew serious. "All right, let's go get them for real this time." She looked around the cubical office they were in. "I doubt they're in here without us noticing," she commented, "but that only leaves the rest of the station to look for..." Her eyes fell on a specific cubical where, while she couldn't see the occupants inside, she could tell they were there from the movement of shadows cast by the various light sources to its walls. "...But Hopps and Wilde might know. Come on."

Leading her partner over, Fangmeyer knocked on the flimsy wall to announce their presence. "Hopps? Wilde? Do either of you know where we might find the two pilots? We need them for some… work for Bogo." Inside the cubical, the fox and bunny were looking quite remembered and red at the ears for some reason. The sight caused Fangmeyer to wonder if she would have walked in on a interesting sight if she didn't knock first.

"Two..? Oh, Count and Trigger, yeah, we know where they are!" Judy looked rather grateful to answer the question and not stay on the topic of why she was looking so flustered. "They- actually, I stand corrected. I know where they _were_, not where they are now." She shrugged and gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry, guess you'll need to find them the hard way."

"Actually, I know where they are," Nick said instead, his eyes half closed in his usual carefree attitude. "Go look down at the tech lab. Bogo has the techies rig up a set of computers that have very limited access to the outside world, and are constantly monitored, but it beats not having anything.. You should be able to find them there."

Wolford lifted an eyebrow at the fox. "And you know this _how_..?" Heck, even Judy was looking at her partner as though he had just conjured up a most amazing of magic tricks.

Nick simply grinned back, obviously delighted at being at the center of the attention. "'Cause I'm Nick Wilde!" he replied smugly.

Letting out an irritated huff at his antics, Fangmeyer turned to leave, nudging Wolford to follow her. "Yeah, yeah, I get it," she grumbled, "you don't want us to know where you got the info. Sure, be like that if you want. And, thanks, I guess, for the tip. Come, James." With a flick of her tail, the tiger and wolf left the cubical.

Judy waited for a bit of time to pass to make sure that the two officers were out of earshot before slowly rotating her seat to face her partner. "So Nick, how _did_ you find that out?"

Nick grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Just got lucky, believe it or not. Was in the area when Bogo made his request for the computer setup, and then it was just a matter of guessing where the two might be at if they are being looked for. Not here, obviously, so it narrows the options down."

Judy returned the grin. "And they won't be down in the station's gymn. Not after a day with Friedkin."

The fox nodded his head in thought. "Huh, wonder how many times either one of them 'died'."

At the mention of the academy main instructor's fondness for declaring trainees as 'dead' for failing a task, Judy's grin widened as she raised a finger. "Actually, Bogo forwarded their performance evaluation to me. Turns out they didn't even do half bad." She swiveled her chair back to face her computer screen and promptly had the report up on in. "See? Take a look..."

Downstairs in the tech lab and server room, officers Fangmeyer and Wolford walked through the set of double doors separating the section from the rest of the precinct, being hit by a wave of cool air as they crossed the doors.

"Ooh, this place is air conditioned down to low," Wolford commented, "I like it."

"That's because the lower temperatures allow the servers to run better," Fangmeyer answered. "But it would cost much more to keep the rest of the building at the same temperatures. Plus, not all mammals like this colder air. Not everyone have nice warm fur to keep them warm like you."

Wolford grinned. "You mean like you? I still remember that one day when you were complaining about _Savanna Central_ being cold."

Fangmeyer grumbled as she tried to glare at him, but failing. "I'm a _tiger_, James. We like our humid, hot climates. Not cold and dry like you wolves." She waved him off to stop him from saying something else. "Anyways, we have a job to do. Let's go grab them."

Looking around the small room, there wasn't much to see. Just a bunch of computers blinking and humming away as they did their work, colored wires going all over the place. Neither Count nor Trigger were visible anywhere, though. "Guess they are inside one of those closets," Fangmeyer commented, "let's go and see."

Checking the nearest of the even smaller rooms, most likely build in fact as a storage closet, they found Count inside. The computer he was behind appeared to be playing a video of what looked like the standard ZNN online news, while the deer himself was barely paying any attention. He was leaning back in his seat, colored string on either side of him. While his arms were hidden because he was facing away from them, it looked like... Was he _sewing_?

With a cough, Fangmeyer knocked on the side of the wall to grab Count's attention. As soon as he realized that he wasn't alone, Count just about fell out of his chair as he tried to hide the evidence of what he was doing by sitting on it.

"What do you want?" he hissed in anger, or was it embarrassment?

Fangmeyer grinned at the deer. "I didn't know you knitted," she said instead of answering. "No need to hide it around here. It's rather impressive, actually. Not many here can do that."

Count didn't look convinced. "I asked you what are you doing here? Bogo told us we can stay down here for as long as we want. Well, as long as we behaved, so is that why you are down here?"

Fangmeyer wondered if something happened that she should be aware about if that was what Count was implying. But if the Chief _didn't_ send them down here because of that, she also doubted there was anything of that sort. "No, we're down here because we, if you would be so kind, could actually use your help. Trigger's as well."

Count stared at the two officers as they stared back in silence. "No shit," he finally replied, "you're actually being serious. Fangmeyer and Wolford nodded in confirmation. Letting out a grin, Count killed his computer and gathered his knitted work, stuffing it all in his pockets. "Can't let Trigger see this, he might get funny ideas," he muttered, "where is the dumbass, anyways? Still holed up in his closet?"

"You're the first one we found," Fangmeyer answered, "but yes, we need both. So let's go and get Trigger." Walking around over to the second of the two storage rooms, she stopped in surprise at what she found inside.

The compute monitor was blank, with its status light indicating idle. A headphone wire snaked away from the computer itself to the base of the chair. On it, the coyote himself was all curled up, fast asleep, tail covering his nose. For some reason, he was still wearing his ZPD issued hat, though the shirt was one of Wolford's donated ones. The headphones he wore over his ears looked ready to fall off, a gentle thumping of music emanating from an exposed driver.

Fangmeyer let out a wicket grin as she quietly reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. As silently as possible, she took a couple of pictures of the sleeping canine, trying to get the best angle in the narrow space.

Wolford peaked around the wall, curious at what was happening inside. "Hey, Dahlia, what's taking you so lo-" he trailed off when he saw what she was doing, his own mouth curling into a grin. "Daww, will you look at that," he whispered, glancing at Fangmeyer's phone to look at the pictures she took. "That's really mean, Dahlia. So, you gonna send them up to Clawhauser? Or better yet, to Hopps?" Fangmeyer grinned back and nodded, but placed the phone back in her pocket.

The chatter got Count's attention, who had to lean around the two officers to take a look inside. Eyes traveling down to his fellow pilot, he covered his mouth with a hoof as he started to laugh. Nudging his way past Wolford and Fangmeyer, he started to poke Trigger awake. "Hey, Dumbass, wakey wakey!"

The coyote groaned and opened his eyes, twitching at Count's prodding. "Count! Stop! I'm awake!" he complained, "what time is it, anyways?" Uncurling himself up, he let out a long yawn as he sat up in the chair, only to notice that everyone else were watching him with amused faces. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. What do you want?" He reached down, and upon finding the power button the computer, held it down until the device turned itself off.

Fangmeyer watched the action curiously, wondering if Trigger did that on purpose as to not show what was on the screen. No matter, it wasn't like they wouldn't be able to look at what he was doing on there.

"Cops here want our help," Count answered with a smug grin.

"Help? With what?" Trigger asked.

"Didn't say," Count replied with a quick shrug. "But they said both of us."

Fangmeyer cleared her throat. "We have a serious of questions we want to ask you about."

Trigger leaned back into his seat. "About what?"

Fangmeyer glanced briefly at her partner. He gave her a quick nod to tell her that she had his backing for what she would say. Besides, it wasn't like these two pilots weren't going to find out what was going on once they actually will start the questioning. "It's about something we found the other day," she answered, "we think the two of you might have some information that can help us out."

A look of worry flashed across the coyote's face before Trigger fought it off. "I- sure, I guess. Not like we're doing anything productive down here. Well, I wasn't. Don't know about Count."

Wolford winked at the deer. "Nah, he wasn't too productive either." Count glared back while stuffing his arms into his pockets. The end of one dark blue string hanging out was otherwise the only evidence of what he was doing.

"Boys," Fangmeyer interrupted, "we came down here for a reason. Count, Trigger, if you'll follow us, we have work to do."

Taking the initiative, she exited the small storage place and made sure that the others were following her. She headed towards the interrogation rooms, grateful that Precinct One had two of them. As long as no one else was using them, she and Wolford would be able to ask the questions they needed and be done with it all relatively quickly. Arriving at the location, she was relieved to find both rooms unoccupied.

Stopping by the door to the first interrogation room, she looked behind her at the other three with her. "Wolford, you take..." her gave shifted between the two pilots. "Yeah, take Count. I'll handle Trigger." She noted how the coyote's ears fell in discouragement when she said this, causing her curiosity to peak as to the cause. "I'll be right back, need to check up on some things first."

Fangmeyer went into the control room for the surveillance equipment for the interrogation rooms and double and triple checked that both video and audio recording were disabled. Agent Winters had specifically requested not to leave a paper trail for now. Or data trail, as it were.

Returning to where the others were waiting, she nodded at Wolford. "Okay, we're good to go," she told her partner. "Trigger, if you don't mind, this shouldn't take too long."

Stepping inside, she pulled the less comfortable of the two chairs for herself and the more cushioned one for Trigger. Even as he sat down, she couldn't help but notice that he was now definitely nervous. A part of Fangmeyer was telling her that she was just being paranoid, but her cop senses were reminding her of all the times she had to deal with questioning preps who were guilty and knew it. Forcing the feelings aside, she brought her phone out and completed the rather tedious process of getting Skye's encrypted message to show up. While she was doing this, she looked up to see Trigger fidgeting nervously in his seat. "Relax, we're just here to get your opinion on some things. Ask a few questions." she said with a smile, hoping to get him to calm down at least somewhat. It didn't seem to work, causing her smile to falter. "Trigger, what's wrong?"

He glanced over to her, his eyes locking with hers, before suddenly finding the table between them very interesting. "N-nothing's wrong," he said lamely. "It's nothing. Just nothing."

Fangmeyer looked down at her phone, still showing the questions she wanted to ask. There was no way that Trigger could know what was on the screen, but she was also certain that Skye would understand if she wrote back that he wasn't comfortable with the questioning. Letting out a sigh, she looked back up at the nervous coyote. "Listen, if you aren't comfortable with this, we don't have to-"

"No, it's fine. Let's get it over with," Trigger said suddenly, interrupting her. "I... Forget it. What were the questions you wanted to ask?"

Fangmeyer had read the list enough times to remember the first several questions off the top of her head. "Okay then, if that's what you want. Can you tell me..."

In the other interrogation room, Wolford looked down at his question list. "Have you ever encountered Urusian combat drones?" he asked.

Count stared back. "Sure, all the time. Not that they compare at all to us real pilots. What about them?"

Fangmeyer wasn't expecting Trigger's answer to be so casual. "What do you mean 'they aren't a big deal'? How often have you run into them?"

Trigger looked back at her. "The first time I got into combat with their drones was on;y on my second mission in the war. That's how early. After the initial shock of suddenly finding yourself in contested airspace in what was moments before localized air superiority, they don't fly as well as piloted aircraft. Just doesn't compare at all."

He let out a sigh. "I shouldn't say that they aren't a bid deal, to be honest. One-one-one, there's no question on who will win. Any pilot who knows how not to crash into the ground will defeat a single drone. What they have going for them is sheer numbers." As he spoke, he began to gently tap on the table. "Most mammals think that drones are inherently superior because they are so much more agile. But in reality, they aren't really. A mammal can withstand some nine to ten G's with some difficulty. A lot of mammals think that without a pilot, that a machine won't be limited to such forces. That a drone can pull ten, twenty G's without issue, but the matter of a fact is that they are just as limited." Trigger's drumming stopped. "A piloted aircraft is only made to handle ten G's at most, just as much as a pilot. Make it stringer, then it becomes heavier. That's fuel you can't carry, or weapons you have to leave behind. So why not make the aircraft handle the same forces as the pilot can, and leave the leftover power and weight for fuel and ordnance? Well, same for drones." He let out a small grin. "They tend to be made much smaller than other aircraft, so they need all the room they can get for fuel and weapons, not to over-strengthen their various components. So they tend to me only just as maneuverable as a piloted plane. Maybe a bit more maneuverable, but not by much. And they also tend to fly rather poorly on top of that."

As Trigger told his explanation, Fangmeyer was getting a nasty feeling that he was almost trying to convince himself about the drone's limitations as much as telling her about their abilities.

Wolford watched Count's expression carefully. "So you're not concerned about going up against these drones?"

Count huffed in amusement. "Why should I? They're as dumb as bricks, carry only a few easily evaded missiles, and have such a poor endurance that it makes horny teenagers blush. The only thing going for them is that they are small and cheap."

"Uh..." Wolford wasn't sure how he was supposed to react to Count's less then enthusiastic response. He received a smug grin for his confusion. "Just… just how often did you have to fly against the drones?"

"I lost track," Count replied simply. "We were told that the Urusians are using drones to increase the performance of their air force, but I get the feeling that they use pilots to add to their drone army instead. Try to attack Urusia directly? Drones. Attack something else? More drones. Heck, try to defend yourself from an Urusian attack and you can bet a drone force will show up. It's a wonder the Urusians are still using those things with how many they lost."

Wolford wasn't entirely convinced that Count was paining a truly accurate picture with his description. "But at what cost? I do remember hearing in the news about how Ocelotia was complaining very loudly about the usage of the drones. Asking about whether or not they violated international wartime laws. If those things are just scrap metal, as you put it, why complain about them?"

Trigger looked saddened by the question he was given. "As much as they aren't that useful now, they were very effective early on in the war," he admitted to Fangmeyer. At first, we didn't expect them, nor did we know how to deal with them. After fighting off Urusian fighters, expending all of your ammo, and tired yourself out in the mad dogfights, those things show up… A good number of us were shot down like that. Just as you think that the fight is over and you can finally go home, you find yourself in yet another fight for your life, except this time the enemy doesn't tire out the more you turn with them. Just you do." He fell quiet, then waved feebly for the next question.

Fangmeyer looked at her list. "As far as you can tell, are the drones piloted?"

"You mean by someone on the ground? I think so... At least when we were near Urusian soil. Other times? Can't prove it, but I can bet a lot that the drones were flying by software only."

Next question, not the next one down on the list, but the one that would fit the best with the direction the conversation was going. Fangmeyer scanned the list, but didn't really need it. "You mention flying against the drones all the time, but also how they have only a short range. How do they get brought over to where you fly at?"

Count smiled back at Wolford, enjoying being the one with the information. "I told you: They are building loads of those things. Ship 'em out everywhere and send up those that just happen to be in the area where we fly to. Doesn't take much guesswork to know that when your enemy is trying to destroy your long range forces, you should send something to protect them. You can almost say that we do all the work for the Urusians."

Trigger paused for a moment to further elaborate on his answer. "As for how the drones get used offensively, the Urusians are using two very large… well, for a lack of a better term, flying aircraft carriers. You won't believe how big they are. We call them Arsenal Birds, uh, you might have heard of them in the news, seen some pictures even. Basically impossible to take out, and are filled to the brim with drones. Crew-less, too. The whole thing is robotized. Can't get anywhere close to anything when one of those things is in the area. For even further reach, the Urusians have a simple trick." He spread his arms out. "What's the best way to send anything large and heavy to any part of the globe? Pack it into your humble shipping container and send it away via cargo ship."

This was the part Fangmeyer was looking for. While Agent Skye had asked that they don't explicitly mention the containers to Trigger or Count, the topic was fair game once the pilots brought it up. Leaning forward in her seat, her expression turned serious. "Trigger, what I'm about to tell you, you may not repeat to anyone else," she warned sternly. "Got it? Good. The other day, an Urusian cargo ship accidentally unloaded a container into our port. That container held a drone inside of it."

Count blinked, but didn't look like he cared. "So what did you do with it?" he asked simply. "We'll shoot it down once it arrives to wherever it will go. Or it can be your problem if you let it. Your dock and all. MQ-99s are easy to deal with. They're the smallest and weakest drones the Urusians use, but they are the only thing to fit inside a shipping box. Especially if there's only one, I wouldn't be worried about it."

Wolford was feeling that perhaps he was getting enough of Count's carefree attitude. It was hard enough dealing with it from Wilde on some days, and now he wasn't looking for more from someone else. "You don't seem very concerned about this, do you?" he finally asked.

"I don't know," Count leaned back in his chair. "Should I be? Never was before." He winked back at Wolford. "Say, you wouldn't have any pictures of that drone of yours, would you?"

"As a matter of fact, I have." The officer leaned down to his bag that he had left beneath the table and pulled out several pages that showed the scans. He had doubted until now that he would need them, but since Count offered, why not? "None of this leaves this room, you remember that, right?"

Count nodded. "Sure thing. Here, lemme take a look." When the scans were moved over to him, he pointed at a part of the drone. "Yeah, see here? That's the flight computer. This is the part that..."

"...I hate going up against them," Trigger admitted. "Taking them out is easy, sure. But you still have to deal with all the missiles they send in your direction, and, they get rather predictable and dull… I guess I prefer fighting aircraft that have someone inside of them, you know?"

Fangmeyer shook her head. "No, Trigger, I can't say that I know," she answered. "Do you really prefer that, though? Prefer potentially killing someone just because you find it more 'exciting' or something?" She barely reacted when her last question earned her a growl from Trigger, who instantly leaned forward, pointing at her.

"_Don't_-!" He hissed at her, fury in his eyes. "_Don't you dare_ try to make me out to be some kind of… psychopath! If you think I go up there to murder others, then you're wrong! I-" he froze, slowly leaning back and mumbling something to himself as he was deep in thought.

Fangmeyer waited patiently for him.

"Three times," Trigger said eventually, "three times they came and removed all of the things of my ce- bunk-mates. Do you know how it feels? To return from a mission to find the bed next to yours _once again empty_?" He let out a small groan, pulling back on his ears with both of his paws. "Doesn't matter what the mission outcome was, what better way to tell you that you _fucked up?_ That _I_ fucked up!"

The tiger felt a pang of sympathy at how defeated the coyote looked.

"As annoying as it gets when someone is badgering on and on when you're just trying to fall asleep is… the silence of an empty bed next to you is so much worse… And then what? Flying up to destroy more drones does what? Cost the Urusians some money? At least I know that when I shoot down one of their pilots, that I can make at least someone feel what they did to me." He let out another growl, though this time it wasn't directed at anyone in particular. "Damn it, how much I want this stupid war to end! But not before… not before I can go up one more time and get the ones who killed my friends." He looked up at Fangmeyer, his eyes noticeably more wet than before. "And if that makes me a monster… then so be it."

Fangmeyer glanced down at the questions list, which now felt much less appropriate. "Trigger-" she began.

"Shit, I'm sorry," Trigger interrupted, "don't know what came over me. Guess Count is right, I really am just a dumb coyote."

She let out a small smile of sympathy. "Sometimes we don't know how much we bottle up inside of us until long after the event has passed," she said, "I'm a cop. We've all seen it before." She placed the phone back in her pocket. "I think we're done with that for today. While it wasn't what I expected, you've been of great help, thank you."

When Trigger didn't reply, she decided to try and change subjects. "You know, Hopps sent me an email not too long ago. It's the results of the testing you and Count did at the academy. You really impressed Major Friedkin, which I will be the first to say is not easy. Both of you impressed her."

Trigger simply shrugged at the news.

"There was no mention of you shocking yourself, is it just me or are you getting better at avoiding it?" Fangmeyer continued, only to earn herself a snort of amusement from Trigger.

"We didn't have to wear those collars," he explained, "ZPD territory, remember?" He then even managed to grin back at her. "You know, if us two humble pilots were able to impress the head instructor, it really makes me worried about the standards around here."

Fangmeyer didn't feel insulted by his comment. If anything, she was glad that he was able to get his mind away from whatever he was troubling him just moments ago, even if it was at the ZPD's expense. Still, she wasn't going to let his jest go without a fight. "Well, the exact words were, and I quote, 'both pilots demonstrated acceptable performance and physical ability across the broad spectrum of tests conducted', end quote. Although..." She grinned slightly back at Trigger. "If Friedkin is anything like what she was when I was at the academy, then that description is the highest praise you will get out of her."

Trigger simply hummed in agreement.

"… and finally, that there is the rocket to launch the whole thing high up enough into the air so that the engine can take over." Count concluded with his explanation. "And there you go, a fully combat ready drone in a box! Quite the impressive package, I would say, only made worse by their horrible flight abilities. At the end of the day, if you need something done, send a pilot. Like me."

Wolford had to take a few moments to process all of the information he was given. Unfortunately for him, what Count had just explained to him was far too technical and advanced for his cop training and education. "Hey, Count, but if asked to, would you mind repeating all of that to Agent Savage when he comes back? I don't think I'll be able to repeat all of that as well as you just described it."

Count shrugged lamely. "Sure, I can, but you'll want to ask Trigger for that instead," he answered.

"Why? You sure knew everything well enough," Wolford countered. "It's not a big deal to ask Trigger to elaborate, but what makes you say that he knows more?"

"Because I only repeated what I heard from Trigger too many times back at the Four-Four-Four. He's the one who actually knows it all." The deer pointed at the scans again. "You know that joke, the one that say how you need a university education to fly a plane but only a secondary school one to fix planes?"

Wolford shook his head. "Can't say I have, but go on."

Count chuckled. "It's the same for all pilots, even civilians. If you know any airliner pilots, ask them and they will tell you. Anyways, the point is..." he fell quiet and actually looked around the room as though looking to see if anyone might be listening in. "Just a friendly warning, but if you let it slip that I said this, I will hurt you really bad, understood?"

"Uh, sure, but what's the big secret?"

"The point is that Trigger is easily a top contender for being the smartest mammal in this building." Count concluded in a low voice.

Wolford smiled. "Well that's not what I was expecting. What makes you say that?"

Count didn't look amused at the wolf's smile. "You can wipe that smirk off your muzzle for one thing," he said, "but why do I say that? Because I happen to hold a degree in philosophy." He glared when Wolford actually started to chuckle. "You. Shut up. But as for Trigger, he not only 'just' holds a degree, he also happens to have a master's degree. In aeronautical engineering." This time it was Count's turn to smirk at the dumbfounded look Wolford gave him.

"An M.S. in _that_? No way!"

"Yes way. I saw the records myself, thanks to an opportunistic hacker who just happened to have a habit of looking into the files of all new transfers to Four-Four-Four. Also explains his somewhat older age despite being complete rookie fresh out of fighter school when the war started. So as I was saying, you want to get into the gritty details of how those drones work, ask him. That's his area of expertise. He was always the one to give that lecture I just gave to the new guys when they would show up."

Wolford was still smiling as he shook his head. "Wow, I can't believe he has that. Must have been really hard work." He looked back at Count. "Okay, okay, so I won't tell the others about how you actually said something nice about Trigger. But then one thing I don't understand, if he's so smart, why do you insist on calling him 'dumbass' all the time?"

Count snorted in amusement. "Come on now! You've seen him. Those book-smarts of his didn't translate over to street-smarts, that's for sure. If he wasn't a combat pilot then I would have had no issues calling him a nerd, but unfortunately, he's a bit too physically fit and holds a too high of a combat body-count for that to qualify. Still a dumbass though."

"Okay, okay! I get it, geez!"

Fangmeyer watched Trigger carefully. "I have just one last question," she said breaking the silence that fell between the two of them. "What was it on the computer that you didn't want us to see? I'm asking now because I know Bogo will insist that we look into it."

Trigger looked back, then let out a long sigh. "There's no escaping it, is there?" he asked. "It's… something personal."

"Look, if it's something-" Fangmeyer felt the tips of her ears warm up in embarrassment, "-of that sort of nature, we'll all understand."

For several moments, Trigger just stared back at her with a confused expression. "Oh, it's..." he glanced down as he tried to muffle a sudden laugh. "No, it's nothing like that," he explained hurriedly before letting out another long sigh, his previously amused demeanor changing into one of longing. "It was a map. A place not too far away from here that I would really like to go to. Point Hind Seashore, if you heard of it. But I don't want to get my hopes up... There's no way your chief will allow me to leave the city. So I settled for the next best thing and looked up some aerial photographs of the area. Doesn't actually come even close to physically being there, but I doubt I'll ever get the chance to visit again."

Fangmeyer remembered Trigger mentioning how he used to live near Zootopia. "You can always try talking to the chief and ask. The worse thing that can happen is that he will say 'no'."

Trigger waved her off. "And he'll be a moron to say 'yes', forget it!" He stood up from his chair. "You asked what I was doing and I told you. Now if you don't mind, I'm tired and want to go to bed."

"But it's still really early. Don't you want to at least eat dinner first?"

The coyote waved in his step. "I'm not hungry," he replied lamely. Fangmeyer didn't believe him for a moment.

With a sigh of her own, she stood up and walked over to him. "Listen, Trigger, I know you're still upset, and I don't blame you. Look, I'm sorry for letting the conversation go the way it did, I didn't mean for it to go there. I really did mean to ask you about your knowledge on the drones and that was it. Here, let me make it up to you. Join James and I for dinner after we'll be done with our work. Heck, let's invite Hopps and Wilde to join us as well. Count too, if you'll prefer."

Trigger even managed to smile back. "Thanks, Fangmeyer, but I think I'll pass," he answered. "I'm sure I'll be able to scrounge up something from the cafeteria here."

Instead of walking to the door, he sat back down on the chair. "You know, I'm not going to pretend like I didn't mean what I told you. About wanting to go up and purposefully try to kill someone. For revenge? I meant every word of it. And I know… I know that I shouldn't be thinking that way, but I'm not going to lie to you about it either," he stared at the table in front of him gloomily. "Hopps will have such a fit if she ever finds out."

Fangmeyer placed one of her paws on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. "I'm sure she would at least try to understand," she said gently. "The offer still stands – why don't we all have dinner together somewhere? Relax and unwind?"

The coyote looked back at her before wiping his eyes with an arm. "Okay, fine," he said, to which Fangmeyer smiled in reply. "But just this once!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Rubble at the Styx**

Judy, being Judy, always made sure that she would arrive to the station with at least ten minutes to spare before the beginning of the morning brief. And because Nick was her partner, he would be forced to come along with her despite his constant complaining that those precious extra minutes could be spent back in bed blissfully asleep.

However, today her habit of arriving early paid off with dividends when Chief Bogo decided to start the brief a good seven minutes early. Judy checked, just to make sure that it wasn't her who thought that he was early today. The two-thirds empty bullpen agreed with her gut feeling that something was off.

Chief Bogo looked even less pleased with the day than he normally did. He didn't even have to get everyone to settle down – he had everyone's attention just by his odd timing. "Look, I don't have the time to go into lengthy explanations, so I'm just going to give you all your assignments and trust that you get them done properly," he gruffly explained. From the back, Fangmeyer and Wolford slipped into the room, trying to get inside without him noticing. If he had, Bogo didn't show it. "Today our station is going to be playing host to a large group of mammals from the government, since apparently this _police station_ doesn't belong to the ZPD anymore..." He glared across the room. "_D__on't_ get in their way, and more importantly, don't get in _my_ way."

He immediately went straight into issuing out assignments. "Higgins, you'll be helping me keep the peace in the station. McHorn, continue with your investigation into the street racing gang. Pennington..."

As Bogo read off the assignments to the police officers, he proved that he was in fact aware of the slow trickle into the room. They no doubt were being warned by Clawhauser about the early start of the meeting, also all tried to get in unannounced. When he did get to an assignment for an officer who hadn't arrived yet, Bogo would simply place it at the back of the pile and continue on without pausing to catch his breath.

"...Hopps, Wilde. You two will be partnering up with Fangmeyer and Wolford to look into a reported drug den. Look into it, shut it down if you can. Snarlov you will be..."

Finally, the last officer tried to sneak into the bullpen. Bogo glanced up from his assignment list. "Ah, good, Johnson, as the last one in here, parking duty."

"What-? But there's still two minutes until we were supposed to start! I'm not late!" The lion protested. Judy snuck a peak at her phone. Sure enough, there were still two minutes left until the briefing was only scheduled to begin in the first place.

Bogo snorted. "I know, but I don't care," he casually explained, "you were still the last one in." He then slammed his arms on the podium. "You all have your assignments! _Dismissed_! Higgins, with me." The room filled with the noise of mammals moving around and chairs squeaking and groaning from being moved around as everyone left before they could gather the wrath of their chief of police.

Nick and Judy met up with Fangmeyer and Wolford just outside the bullpen. Fangmeyer was already flipping though the case file, trying to find any useful information.

"So what are we looking at today?" Judy asked, already getting her mind ready for the work.

"Not much to go on here," Fangmeyer answered, still flipping through. "We have an address, some kind of old warehouse if memory serves me correctly. A report of suspicious activity that might or might not be gang or drug related… A search warrant allowing us to inspect the place... Case file that's a couple of days old at this point..." She squinted at something at the bottom of the last page. "Note from Bogo to go and checkup with Clawhauser. Okay then, guess we have our first item on the 'to do' list."

The group went off to the dispatcher's desk, and Nick used the time to get Wolford's attention. "Hey, Wolfy, is it just me, or was Buffalo Butt even crankier than usual this morning?" he asked.

Wolford ignored the sight of both Fangmeyer's and Judy's ears swiveling in their direction. "Uh, yeah, well, who wouldn't be? Especially with that-" he pointed towards the floor in front of Clawhauser's desk. A number of various mammals were all trying, and failing, to look inconspicuous despite their rather casual clothing. Though separate from the group were a certain deer and coyote, busy to talking to Clawhauser. This morning, the two of them appeared to have put more effort into their appearance, with Count especially.

Nick grinned and took the initiative by walking over to the reception desk. "There you two jokers are. Was wondering where you were," he said as he came over. "Looking good there, Count! What's the occasion?"

Count grinned back, running a hand between his ears through his freshly shined fur. "We're needed today to put on a show! So why not? 'Sir Count' ready to dazzle!"

Nick grinned. "A show, huh? What about?"

"Eh, not anything important as far as you will care." Count tilted his head towards Wolford. "Officer here already heard the entire thing, but I suspect it went through one ear and out the other without stopping by for a visit to his brain."

"I heard that," Wolford warned as he came over with the others. "And FYI, but I _did_ understand most of it, but thank you for your consideration."

but didn't show any other emotions as he turned his attention to Clawhauser and Trigger. The second pilot had his back to them and wasn't paying any attention, but he could see Clawhauser just fine, and more importantly his terrified expression. "Morning Spots! What's eating you? Anything us beat cops can help you with?" He looked over at the pilots, trying to read their expressions to see if he can come up with the answer on his own. Count looked quite amused at something, while Trigger was looking rather irritated, a paw outstretched to hand Clawhauser what looked like a flash drive.

"Nick, it's a catastrophe!" Clawhauser answered, eyeing nervously as the other three officers came over after Nick. "Trigger… he, and I really don't know how it's even possible, I mean can you imagine? I never thought it could ever be, but he-"

Fangmeyer interrupted Clawhauser. "Ben, you're rambling again," she said, getting his attention. "What's up?"

Clawhauser gave a shy shake of his head. "Oh, right, sorry. As I was telling Nick… Trigger came over to ask me for something, at which I _asked him _if he heard Gazelle's latest album. You know, _El Dorado_? Not only has he not heard it yet, _but he doesn't even know who Gazelle is!"_

Count couldn't help himself and started to laugh, shoulders shacking as he forced a fist into his muzzle to stop himself from making too much noise.

Wolford buried his own face into his paws with a disappointed sigh while Fangmeyer suppressed her own reaction while trying to look dignified.

Judy stared at Trigger with a strong look of a disapproving parent, while Nick just smirked with his usual expression.

Trigger shoved his drive towards Clawhauser again. "I know I live under a giant rock, I get it! But I just need you to double check if the files on this work! They're needed very soon and I need to make sure that they work more than just on the computer I get to use down at the server room. I don't have the luxury of time to sit and talk about some stupid singer!" he complained. "Help a guy out, will you?"

Except instead of helping, Clawhauser just stared back, eyes wide and lower lip quivering. "Di- did you just call the greatest gift to this planet s-s-s-" he couldn't finish the word as his voice failed him.

"Way to go Trigger, now you hurt his feelings," Judy scolded, causing his ears to lower in shame.

Nick leaned over to whisper in Trigger's ear. "Word of advice, but seeing how you just insulted Gazelle right in front of the president of her fan club, now is a very good time to start running for your life."

Count's shaking only increased, though the word '_dumbass_' was heard muffled through his fists.

Trigger glanced around him, his own eyes widening in fear when he realized that he was now in a one-versus-five situation, with the sixth not on either side, but most importantly, not on his. "Look, Clawhauser… Ben? I didn't mean it! I mean, how could I? If I never even heard of her, how can I have a bad opinion of her?" Clawhauser stared back as he continued to stammer. "I don't actually think she's stupid! For all I know, she really is the best singer in the world! So what do you say?" When the dispatcher didn't reply, Trigger pulled his arm back and placed the flash drive in his pocket. "You know what? Forget it. Everything should work fine anyways." He backed away from the desk, glancing nervously at the group of mammals, of whom some were watching him and the other officers by the desk.

"Hey, Trigger?"

He stopped when Clawhauser spoke up. "...Yeah?"

"Here, let me look at that drive." Clawhauser took the stick from Trigger and plugged it into his own computer. "What time are you going to be free today?" he asked as he started to glance at the files that popper up.

"I don't know. Most likely I'll be busy for the entire day," Trigger answered, shuffling nervously as Clawhauser whistled in amazement while looking through the files.

"That's some rather advanced stuff," Clawhauser commented, "don't know why you needed me to look through it. It all works as far as I can tell, but this is all way above my head. Uh, I _am_ allowed to look at this, right?"

"Different operating system and programs," Trigger replied lamely. "Just needed you to open this up and make sure nothing glitches up. And yes, there's nothing secret in here."

Clawhauser shrugged and pulled out the drive, handing it back. "Could have just had an officer to check it up for you then. One of them, even," he motioned at the others around the desk, then stopped. "Well, anyways, you know, that 'not knowing about Gazelle' thing of yours? That's a very serious illness you have there."

Trigger blinked, confused. "That's hardly an illness-" he countered, only to be shushed into silence receptionist, now patiently breathing out slowly, humming as he did so.

"Do not worry, ye of little faith," Clawhauser, "visit this but humble servant in front of you, and he will cure you of this terrible pestilence. We who walk the path of Gazelle do not feel shame towards those outside the True Light, nor hostility. No, we only seek to cure the world of this terrible predicament through the good news of Her songs. Amen."

From behind, Count doubled over in laughter as Judy, playing along, _crossed_ herself as Clawhauser spoke.

He then opened his eyes, staring unblinking at Trigger. "But seriously. Stop by here once you have some free time. You have no idea what you are missing out on!"

"Uh, sure, I guess I'll do that," Trigger answered, confusion evident in his voice. "But I uh.." he glanced down at his flash drive. "...I don't know where I was going with this. Whatever, Count, let's go, we have work to do." He quickly glanced at the other officers. "See you around, I guess?" He turned and left, a still chuckling Count following behind.

Clawhauser waved at them as they left. "Good luck with whatever it is you're doing! And remember, my desk after you're done!" He turned to the officers. "I was just playing with him, I wasn't actually upset that he never heard of Gazelle. Just surprised more like. A simple fix, I assure you all!" He grinned, then suddenly sat up straighter. "So what can I help you lot with? Or did you simply stop by to say hello?"

Fangmeyer was about to answer when Clawhauser suddenly disappeared behind his desk, reappearing a moment later with a stack of papers in his paws.

"Silly me, I almost forgot that Bogo had me print these out for you this morning!" he explained as he handed the papers to Fangmeyer. "So, you're investigating the spooky old run-down place?"

Holding the new papers low enough for everyone to see, Fangmeyer flipped through them. They were mostly photographs and schematics for the building they were tasked with looking into. "Doesn't look like anything more or less unusual than any abandoned industrial building," she commented, "though those do often provide a popular spot for crime. Nick, and advice from that Zootopian encyclopedia you have in your head?"

Nick grabbed the papers from Fangmeyer, examining them more closely. "Oh, yeah, I know where this is," he commented, "as far as defunct areas go, this one is rather new. It was still up and running as of ten or so years ago, but closed down and was abandoned after that. Can't say that I have heard of this area as being a center of crime or low-lifers. It's a bit too far away and isolated from the center of the city to be attractive to even those who want to avoid being seen." He handed the stack back to Fangmeyer.

Watching the officers, Clawhauser reached down and grabbed a set of car keys. "One last thing, Bogo says to take one of the undercover vehicles instead of your usual cruisers. This one will fit you all with plenty of space."

Fangmeyer took the keys as well. "Thanks Ben! We'll keep you updated." Then to the other officers, she asked, "any of you have any other last minute things to get done? Otherwise, let's hit the road!"

There wasn't anything else, so the four officers made sure that they had all of their gear before heading over to the vehicle pool. Their given vehicle in question was hardly 'undercover' if it can be called that. It was still very much a ZPD police vehicle, just without the usual lights and stickers that make identification of a cop car easy. Didn't mean that this thing wouldn't stand out on the road.

Still, with their uniforms on, it wasn't like they were particularly trying to blend in. Getting inside, Fangmeyer had Wolford drive, with Nick and Judy placed in the back seats. However, due to the car being designed around medium-large mammals like the wolf and tiger, there was more than enough room in the back for the smaller fox and bunny.

As they drove, Nick spoke up about the place they were heading to. "I just remembered something else about this warehouse," he said, "there were some rumors a couple of years back. During the Nighthowler scare? I remember hearing rumors that this place had some weird stuff going on..." he had to stop to recall from his memory some more. "No, I don't think it was Nighthowler related, though. It least, I don't remember it being so. Not to mention, if it _was_ related, it would have shown up as a link in our system for the case file."

"So you think we might be on to something, Nick?" Judy asked, ears perking up in interest. From the front, Fangmeyer was also leaning her had back to hear better.

"Not sure," Nick admitted as he stared out of his window. "They were only rumors, and anything of serious note tends to get passed around a bit more than just through the rumor mill. If you want to think of it, it's like well, in the less-than-legal parts of Zootopia, when a lot of business deals, if you want to call them that, have nothing to back them up but words, then the expression 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence' comes to mind."

"...So you're saying that we should expect to find anything then?" Fangmeyer asked, sounding disappointed.

Nick grinned a little. "Nah. More like, expect that there might be something, but don't be surprised if there isn't," he clarified.

"That's hardly much of an answer, Nick," Judy said accusingly.

He looked out the window to show how uninterested he was. "Yeah, well, before I was a cop, it was my job to know everything about everyone and everywhere in this city," he countered, "but aster I turned blue, a lot of mammals made it a habit of theirs to make sure that I _don't_ keep up with the times. So excuse me if I don't have all the info going in this time, Carrots."

A very low growl emanated from the front of the car where Fangmeyer was. "Everyone, can we stop from arguing before we even get there?" she asked.

"We weren't arguing!" countered both Nick and Judy at the same time, causing the bunny to start laughing.

"Are the two of you always like this together?" Fangmeyer then asked, tone heavily implying that she had already guessed the answer correctly.

"Yea-up" Nick confirmed.

The tiger groaned, hitting her forehead against the steering wheel. "Figures..." And here she thought from the several times she rode with Nick as her partner that he could get bad enough on his own at times. No wonder Bogo's temper got even worse after the fox joined the force.

Luckily, the rest of the ride proved uneventful, with Nick even providing directions to a run down entrance for the car to slip through that didn't show up on the map. Naturally, he didn't give an actual answer when asked how he knew about it.

The scenery around them gradually became duller and more run down as they drove, telling them visually how they were leaving the more affluent parts of Zootopia and entering the less well-off sections. Soon enough, they drove away from those as well, entering an area where only the occasional ragged mammal could be spotted on the street, surrounded by broken and weathering buildings. In fact, out here, the only signs telling them that they were still in Zootopia were the tall and shiny buildings that formed the skyline behind the corroded concrete jungle around them.

A few quick hints from Nick, and they arrived to the scene.

Parking next to the rusting and collapsing warehouse, the four officers got their first good look at their target building. Or perhaps a lack of a building. The walls were all right, for the most part, if one ignored the heavy rust, other stains, and complete coverage by graffiti. The roof though, from what they could see, looked like it was on its last legs before a complete collapse.

"You said this place was abandoned ten years ago, Wilde?" Wolford asked, "I feel unsafe just _looking_ at it." He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "As for being a drug den, certainly smells like it. Or at least like it used to be a hobo hideout."

Nick sneezes as a particularly foul scent hit his own nose. "Tell me about it," he complained, "we didn't bring any nose plugs with us, did we?"

Fangmeyer glanced back at their car. Even if it wasn't a police car, just by the fact that it was clean and shiny made it stand out like a sore thumb compared to its surroundings. "We have the usual muzzle masks if you want one of those, but they are terrible at blocking the smell."

Even as he gagged, Nick shook his head. "No thanks, I'll pass. I don't want to smell nasty things _and_ have trouble breathing at the same time." His ears suddenly perked up when he heard his name being called.

"Nick?" Judy called out again. "Nick? I think... I just found something!" She sounded rather worried, so he hurried over to the location of her voice, stepping over a small rubble pile and finding her. "Nick, is that-?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Nick answered, staring down at the body she found. It was barely recognizable at this point, with the rotting fur and skin blending almost equally into even more rotting clothing. The size was fitting for a small-medium mammal, but he honestly couldn't even start to guess as to the exact species. "Must have been lying here for a good several weeks to be in a state like this," he commented, "most likely some homeless guy who finally gave up trying. I don't know what did him in though." He scanned the ground around them, noticing the large quantities of trash and the more than comfortable amount of broken needles and other pieces of glass. "Damn, easily an OD that no one cared about." He reached out and pulled Judy back by the shoulder. "Let's go, fluff. Staring at bodies isn't good for your health," he joked, even as he was scolding himself for such a lame attempt to cheer her up.

"Nick..."

He stopped when he heard her say his name in a quiet voice. "Yes, Fluff?"

She looked up at him, eyes wide and nose twitching. "How can you be so… casual about this?"

Nick sighed, gently pushing her away from the body. "I've been on and off the streets since I was twelve," he explained, "it's not the first time I've seen the darker side of the city where 'anyone can be anything'." Together, they went back to Fangmeyer and Wolford.

Fangmeyer noticed the look on Judy's face when the two of them came back. "What did you find?" she asked.

"A body," Nick answered plainly, "many days old based on the state of decay."

Wolford winced. "Aww, geez. Okay, I'll call it in." He moved over to where Nick and Judy came from, and for the next two or so minutes, their radios crackled as he described the find over to Clawhauser.

Fangmeyer had other ideas. "Guys, over here," she called out from where she went back to their car. "I don't like the look of this place, so I'm making the call that we need more protection." Grabbing the extra gear, she returned to Nick and Judy and started handing out the various items she grabbed. "Gloves, muzzle masks, booties..."

Putting on the protective clothing, Nick tugged at his mask to try and make it a little less uncomfortable. But it wasn't the only item bothering him. "And to think that Count and Trigger wore boots for so long that they _prefer_ to have them on," he complained, wiggling his feet to adjust the offending material, "these just feel weird!"

"Would you rather step on something sharp, cut yourself, and then lose the entire leg due to infection?" Fangmeyer asked, rolling her eyes at his complaining. "You'll get used to these soon enough." She glanced at the rabbit, who remained quiet during this short exchange. "While you're at it, Wilde, check your gear. Make sure your dart gun is loaded, and double check your muzzle and cuffs. I know how you like to ignore the former of the two." She took a few steps to get close to Judy and kneeled down to be at her level eye to eye. "Hopps? Judy, how you holding up?"

Judy blinked before answering. "I… Just a strange feeling. I've had family members die back in Bunnyburrow, it's only natural considering the size of rabbit extended families, but we never left out a body to rot like that," she explained, "… I don't know, I guess I didn't expect to see something like _that_."

Fangmeyer smiled a little and nodded. "Don't worry, we all have a moment when we first see something we don't know right away how to deal with," she said, "comes with the territory of being a cop. But most importantly, how are you feeling? Want to sit this one out in the car?"

This question seemed to snap Judy out of her stupor. "What? No! I'm a cop, aren't I?" She exclaimed, "if I wanted to work in an occupation where I won't be uncomfortable, then I would have stuck to farming! I can still do my job." She then smiled back. "Am I J_udy 'Wonder Bunny' Hopps_ or not?"

This last question earned her a chuckle from Fangmeyer. "Alright, you got me there. Put on your gear and let's figure out the game plan." She handed the pile of things to Judy. "I do hope I picked the right size out from the trunk." With a nod, Judy took the things.

When Wolford returned, he also took only a few moments to put on his own protective gear. "Ambulance will show up to take care of the body once we leave," he explained as he got ready, "that way they will leave the site undisturbed for us to inspect." He frowned in his mask. "Can't say I saw much from over there," he said with disappointment. "Just rubble and more rubble. Several remains of tents and other what used to be someone's home. Definitely a place where drugs were, possibly are still used, but I can't say anything about it being a source for them." He glanced around them. "Can't say I saw any living souls around either. For Zootopia, this place is definitely out in the Styx."

Nick pointed a finger at Wolford. "Just remember in case you run into him: 'don't pay the ferrymammal!"

The other three just stared back at him like he spoke in some foreign language. Nick smirked back. "No? Guess I'm just more cultured than the you all."

Fangmeyer grumbled. "Wilde, now's not the time," she said firmly. "Take Hopps, scout the building clockwise. Wolford and I will take the other direction. Radio in if you see anything. If not, we'll meet up somewhere close to the other side." Thinking over a few more things, she nodded briefly. "Stay in contact through dispatch. While I don't see anything yet, I have a bad feeling about this. Wolford, ready?"

Judy nodded and grabbed Nick's arm. "Got it! Nick, let's go." She lead her partner off towards the warehouse, letting go of him as soon as he flicked his harm to loosen her grip.

The fox, for his part, smirked towards the bunny. "Gee, Fluff, I didn't know you had to hold my paw like that. You sure you're feeling all right?" he teased.

Judy rolled her eyes. "I told you, I'm _fine_!" she complained as she stopped at the wall, peering inside through the rather large cracks in the failing concrete and metal sides. "Seriously, who would ever want to live at a place like this?" she asked, noting a worn and weathered tent hastily placed on top of some more rubble.

Nick looked over hear head, but didn't see anyone who might claim home to the tent. "Those who want to have no more contact from anyone," he answered calmly. "A far too high number of drug addicts and drunks too far gone to care, those who simply gave up on life..." he grimaced, but even if he wasn't wearing a mask, Judy wouldn't have been able to see it. "Mentally ill that fell through the cracks..."

Through the gaps, he spotted several birds pecking away at some rubbish. "City's always been good at scaring birds away, to prevent them preying on the smallest of mammals," he added, "but it looks like no one's come in to fix the systems here for a while." He glanced down at his partner. "Stick close to me, don't want to get ambushed by an airborne threat."

Judy glanced up. "Thanks, Nick, but I think I can handle myself," she replied. "Think we don't have ways to deal with birds back at the homestead?" Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Wolford and Fangmeyer working their way past the building on the far side. She waved, but they didn't notice. "Rather odd how I was able to see them through two walls just now," she commented to Nick.

"Just a side effect of the place being so worn down," he said, "odd, normally takes more than a decade to get to a state like this."

Judy's ears perked up. "There's more places like this?" she asked.

Nick shook his head. "Not really. There are a pawful of places that lost ownership and no one bothered to pick up, but they're rare. Real estate in Zootopia is a bit too short in supply to just allow plots of land to go unused. Even places where no developer would care to adopt, organized crime is always looking for new places to set up shop."

At the mention of organized crime, Just had an idea. "Think we might have time to stop by Fru Fru's and ask about this place? She might have an idea about it."

"She might," Nick agreed. It was a long standing agreement that the two of them use Fru Fru as a cover instead of mentioning Mr. Big even when talking about asking for his help on a case. "It's odd, really, but I have a feeling that not even organized crime is running this place."

Judy looked around to try and see what he was seeing to lead to such a conclusion. Not spotting anything, she asked, "what makes you say that?"

Nick smirked again. "Because of how run down this building is. Roof, walls are about to collapse completely at any moment. I wager good money a good percentage is going to fall off come next storm. Bad for business to have your infrastructure collapsing around you when you are busy setting up shop. Also, birds. Shrews have good reason to fear them."

Judy nodded. "Right. Well, let's keep going?"

The two of them didn't get far when their radio crackled with Fangmeyer's voice.

"_Wilde, Hopps, get over to us. We just found something very interesting. __There's a__ door here. __It's__ locked. __A__nd get this: the lock's new._"

"Copy that, Hopps and Wilde on our way" Judy replied into her own radio. "You heard them, Nick. Let's go and see what they found," she said.

"_Check that. Meet us at the car._"

"Wilco."

With their now corrected orders, Nick and Judy made their way back to the car where they met up with Fangmeyer and Wolford. Over the radio, Fangmeyer and Wolford confirmed with Clawhauser that they were to get inside if they can and look for anything they can find inside. As the two came closer, Judy saw that the two officers already there were now busy putting on their tactical vests. "Have any idea what's behind the door?" she asked, eyeing hers and Nick's extra equipment already laid out and ready for them to grab.

"I'll be honest, Hopps," Fangmeyer answered, "I am _really_ starting not to like this place. Even for a forgotten corner of Zootopia, we should have at least seen someone. More than one someone. Instead, we found a decaying body. The buildings around us look no better, and the warehouse itself that we are tasked with looking into is even worse. Except for one rather well hidden door with a shiny new lock on it." She grunted as she tugged on her ballistic vest to get it to fit more properly. "Anything in that description sound odd to you?"

"All of it," Judy agreed. She proceeded to put her own vest on as well.

Fangmeyer nodded. "So we're not taking any chances. Best case, I'm just being paranoid and someone is using the isolated location to store some personal property. But worst case..." She grabbed a ballistic firearm and checked to make sure it was loaded, sliding a round home and flicking the safety on before placing the weapon into its holster on her hip. "...Worst case, I really do hope our tranq guns are enough," she finished.

In a few short minutes, the rest of the officers had their own equipment and gear checked and stowed appropriately, checking over each other to make sure that they didn't miss anything. A quick radio call to Clawhauser to inform him of their status, and they were ready.

"Once inside, I don't want us splitting up unless it's for a very good reason," Fangmeyer said, "Hopps, know you and Wilde work best together, but listen to us. I know you both scored highly in training, but if things turn bad in there, training only goes so far compared to actual experience, which I have to say both of you _don't_ have." She grinned down at the two smaller officers. "Not that I consider that a bad thing." She held up a paw, showing two of her fingers crossed. "And here's hoping that you won't be gaining any of that experience today." One more look over at the group, and she gave a final nod. "Right, no more delaying. Wolford, you ready?"

"One hundred percent, Dahlia."

Another nod. "Wilde?"

"A fox is always good to go!"

"Right. Hopps?"

"Ready when you are."

"Good. Everyone, stay sharp. Now, let's go breach that door."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Snooping Underground**

When they broke the lock and pushed the door open, tranquilizer darts at the ready, the sight greeting them was… anticlimactic. Just more broken down walls and rubble in a small room that was half collapsed into itself.

Wolford and Fangmeyer, already being larger than Nick and Judy, but also standing in front of the other two officers, got the first good look of the empty place.

"Why does it look like nothing is here?" Wolford asked, "just more rubble. Not something someone would install new locks over."

Judy was able to make her way into the small space, only to stop and frown at the lack of anything interesting. "Maybe someone knew we were coming and left along with all their stuff?"

Fangmeyer nodded. "It's a possibility. Not the first investigation into a drug den turning up empty because someone leaked the info out. The case file was gathering dust for a few days before Bogo handed it over to us, and I have no idea how long it took someone else to create it in the first place. If it was a leak, there was plenty of time for it."

"I have another possible explanation," Wolford added, "what if whoever was here used this door as a kind of red herring? Make us think that something is here when there isn't anything?"

Fangmeyer shook her head, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Maybe. Maybe not," she admitted, "guessing the whats and what ifs will get us nowhere, so let's stop speculating. We still have the rest of the building to look over." As she turned to leave, she stopped at the sight of Nick holding up a piece of rubble over his head. "Uh, Wilde, what are you doing?" she asked.

Nick grinned back. "Tell me if this doesn't sound right," he answered, and dropped the hunk of concrete. The rubble hit the floor with a loud reverberating clang, instantly getting everyone else's attention.

"How did you know that the floor was hollow?" Just asked, staring at her partner dumbfoundedly.

The fox's grin only widened. "Lucky guess, that's all," he said, only to then point at the ground next to where Fangmeyer was standing. "Actually, I saw a long and straight crack in the floor and thought that it was _too_ straight."

The tiger stared down and even backed away a few steps to get a better view. "Still, that's… good eyes there, Wilde," she complemented. "Does sure look like a door of some kind. All right, let's find a way to get it open."

With the four of them helping out, it didn't take long to clear out the rubble and miscellaneous items blocking their way, revealing a simple rectangular metal door, hinges on one side, and not even any locks holding the thing shut. It was also missing any handles, but Fangmeyer solved that problem by jamming a stray bit of metal rebar into one of the door's bleed holes and leveraging the hole thing up. With a high-pitched creek, the door angled up and with a push on the rebar, Fangmeyer pushed the whole thing open. Dust and pebbles fell into the now revealed dark opening in the floor, but no other noises came from either around them or from the tunnel they revealed.

Wolford turned on his flashlight, trying to illuminate down the vertical tunnel, but all that was visible was a simple ladder going down into pitch darkness. "Well that doesn't look foreboding at all," he commented as he peered down. "Let's try something else then."

From his pocket, he pulled out a small flare and cracked it on. Holding it over the opening, he dropped it down, letting them track its progress as it fell down inside the tunnel. Clanking against the ladder a couple of times, the flare hit what must have be the floor, just barely visible from where the four officers stood above.

Fangmeyer grimaced as she tried to guess the distance. "Looks like three stories down, at least," she commented. "I fear we're going to have to go down there ourselves. Just a moment." Instead of her radio, she used her phone to call Bogo directly. A short conversation later, and she put it back in its holding place. Even though the other officers were close enough to have heard the conversation, she still summarized it to get everyone on the same page. "Right, we go down there," she confirmed. "Hopps, Wilde, stick to Wolford and I. Our radios should still be able to communicate to each other, but I doubt we'll be able to get a signal to the outside world. Because of this isolation, we're only going to search for anything suspicious. If there is any sign of trouble, we leave immediately. Everyone got that?"

They all nodded.

With her own nod of acknowledgment, Fangmeyer cast one last glance down the ladder. "I'll go first. Wolford, stay right behind me. Hopps and Wilde, wait for our signal." With a sigh and a deep breath, she clambered down the ladder. "Good luck everyone!" She disappeared down the dark tunnel, Wolford following her soon afterwards.

Nick frowned as he stared down at them fading into the darkness below. "Why do we have to stay up here like children, Carrots?" he complained, "they should know that we're more than capable of handling ourselves."

Judy grinned and shook her head. It was something that she herself would have said on her first year on the force. Correction – first two years. "Because they are our senior officers," she explained teasingly, "it's their job to go in first into a potentially risky situation. We're the backup in this case, not the front line."

Nick shrugged. "Well, I know that duh. But still..."

The radio crackled. "_Ladder area's clear. You're both good to join us."_

Judy grinned. "Ladies first," she teased again, grabbing onto the ladder before Nick can beat her to it. Not that it mattered, with the climb being more unnerving due to the difficulty in seeing the rungs below her rather than anything else.

Wolford's and Fangmeyer's flashlights helped her for the last section, and soon enough, the four officers stood at the base of the ladder, illuminating a regular shaped if completely dark hallway in front of them. Once on solid ground again, Nick and Judy added their own lights, revealing something interesting on a wall nearby.

A fuse box and a light switch.

"Think that still works?" Nick asked in a whisper, "if it does, it will tell anyone home here that they have uninvited guests."

Fangmeyer frowned as she walked over to the fuse box, inspecting it. "It all looks intact, so if there's power going into wherever we are, I think the lights will work." She reached out, hovering a finger next to the light switch. "Besides, if anyone's home, I doubt that they don't know that someone else, us, is down here. We weren't exactly quiet on our way down." Turning away from the switch, she glanced down the dark hallway leading away from them. "And I would prefer to see better at what we're getting ourselves into." Taking in a deep breath, she called out into the darkness. "ZPD! We have a search warrant!"

As her voice echoed down the hallway, she flicked the switch. At first, nothing happened, but then the ceiling overhead crackled and flickered as the overhead lights slowly came to life. Several seconds later, the lights came to life properly and revealed the corridor they stood in as nothing more than bare concrete with the occasional closed door on the side, before the whole thing took a ninety degree turn to the side and disappearing from view.

Wolford whistled in amazement. "There's no way that was supposed to work," he breathed out, "you're really going to tell me that this place had power going to it by the utilities all this time?"

Judy didn't know whether to smile in satisfaction or wince in uncertainty. "As glad as I am that I can see now," she muttered, referring to being the only one with poor night vision, "now they definitely know we're down here."

"It's not our job to ambush anyone," Fangmeyer replied as she readied her tranquilizer pistol. "We're here to inspect this place and see if we can find anything drug related. Wolford, what's your nose telling you?"

The wolf sniffed the air around them. "All the scents are old," he answered, "not ten years old or anything close to that, but this isn't a place frequently visited. As for drugs?" he sniffed again. "Not a thing. This area's clean, as far as I can tell." He readied his own pistol, leading Nick and Judy to do the same, "there's still a lot of this underground area to inspect. Be ready for anything."

The four officers proceeded cautiously down the hall, checking the various doors. Most were locked, but occasionally, one would open to reveal what looked like nothing more than abandoned office spaces. Desks and chairs could be found inside, but no papers or computers remained to reveal might be found down here.

"Hey guys, I just thought of something," Nick muttered as they inspected another tiny office only not to find anything of note. "If I am right about this place being abandoned for a good decade, and I am quite sure that I am-"

"Wilde, get to the point or shut up," Fangmeyer cut him off in annoyance.

Judy cast a worried glance between her partner and the lead officer before nudging him to keep up.

"My point is," Nick continued as though he didn't hear her complaint, "we're underground, but apart from everything being empty, this place looks… normal. Like any other office space that was packed up and moved. But we're underground. Do any of you know how much it costs to build and maintain anything of this size underground?_ A lot_! As in, several times more expensive!" As he talked, he nearly walked into Fangmeyer, who had stopped in her own walking.

"Wilde… Nick, _please_," she let out a long breath, "I know there is something seriously sketchy about this place. Everyone knows this! But can you _please_ be quiet? This is the exact kind of situation where officers get hurt. Or worse. So keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open."

Nick groaned at the telling off and shook his head, but didn't try to argue back. As his eyes wandered, he found himself again staring at a concerned Judy looking back at him. Despite the mask covering half her face, her expressive eyes were all that were needed for him to know what she was thinking. "Relax, Fluff, I got it," he muttered with a shrug, "I'm paying attention to my surroundings."

Not that there was much to look at – the unpainted concrete and plain doors didn't look any different than when they first turned the lights on. That is until they reached another door, that when they tried the handle, revealed itself to be locked like others. But this door was slightly different.

Fangmeyer motioned at a very small door built into the one they just tried. "Hopps, you should be able to fit through there. Try it."

Judy approached the small mammal door and gave it an exploratory push. It opened. Carefully peering inside, she found that the light from the corridor didn't go very far inside. Flicking her light on, she scanned what was on the other side, but didn't see anything unusual. "Empty tables, some chairs like before," she muttered as she scanned with her light. "Should I go in?"

Fangmeyer tried the main door handle again to no avail. "Be careful. Unlock the door for us. If you can't, return to us and we'll keep looking elsewhere."

With a quick nod, Judy slipped through the small door and scanned the room when she was on the other side. Just another empty room, from the looks of it. Pushing a chair over to the door, she hopped on top and reached for the main handle, unlocking it from the inside.

The other officers filled the room, inspecting all of the corners and looking quite disappointed when they didn't find anything.

"Right, this was a waste of time, but I suspect we can expect all of the other locked rooms to also be empty," Fangmeyer concluded. "Unless this should be counted as unlocked like the other rooms we searched." She exited the room, motioning for the others to join her. "There's still several more rooms left, plus whatever lies past that bend there. Personally I wouldn't mind not finding anything, this place is giving me the creeps."

The other rooms along the section of corridor they were in also proved a disappointment, again just a collection of either locked or unlocked but clearly abandoned rooms.

What they found on the other side of the corner was a whole different story, however.

Carefully peering around before rushing in blindly, Fangmeyer stared at a couple of more doors lining the walls, but that wasn't what was interesting her. What interested her was what lay at the end of the hall, or rather, the impressive looking door that lined the opposing wall, isolated from the rest. If she didn't know any better, Fangmeyer would have said that the door had come straight out of a cheesy science-fiction flick. "Area clear," she informed the others, "but what in the world is that? As in, I've never seen a door like that before?"

Nick took his own peak around the corner and grinned. "That would be an airlock," he answered, "it isolates the air systems between us and whatever is on the other side." He hummed in thought. "A bit on the fancier side, but it also actually makes sense when about why it's underground," he continued to explain, "if whoever designed this place wanted to isolate everything including the very air around something, then you do so underground and use airlocks as the only way in or out. I wouldn't be surprised if the ventilation system going out is heavily filtered and also has some sort of mechanism to lock it all down."

Fangmeyer stared at the fox. "Uh, Wilde, color me impressed, but how do you know all of that?" She paused, reconsidered her thoughts, and shook her head. "Never mind that. At least we know what we're looking at. But why here underground?"

Nick scratched his muzzle though his mask as he thought. "Well, one theory is that if you're dealing with something very dangerous, you can isolate an unintended leak by keeping everything in a concrete box underground like we're in now. Closed off air circulation will help in keeping everything even more isolated." He grinned at the others, no doubt eager to show off more of his knowledge. Hospitals and the like use them all the time when developing new medication and the like with the testing they do. Speaking of drugs, but it doesn't need to be said that placed like these get used for less than noble purposes as well. Uhh..." His ears fell as he realized something. "Speaking of drugs indeed… What were we sent here to look for again? _Oh, right_..." He looked at the door nervously.

The others looked as well, following his gaze. While the door was made largely of glass, time and wear turned the once transparent surface into a milky haze that was impossible to gleam anything useful through.

Fangmeyer once again took charge. "Right, why do I feel like we will find whatever we're looking for through the door?" She groaned slightly, not liking the idea of possibly trapping themselves inside. "Chief Bogo will almost certainly hang us off our butts for this if we back out, but I want a unanimous call for this," she announced firmly, "Wolford, Hopps, Wilde. Do any of you not feel comfortable trying to get past that door? I won't hold it against you if you don't, and I will certainly do my best to make Bogo understand. We're just cops, after all. This isn't a normal situation for us." She glanced at her main partner. "James?"

Wolford grinned back. "Sure, we're just cops. But it's still our job. I for one knew the risks when I signed up for the academy."

Fangmeyer also grinned, but it faded as soon as she looked over to the newest officer in their group. "Nick?"

Nick was busy staring at the door. "Why does this feel a lot like Cliffside Asylum again? I bet you a lot of money that there's going to be some shiny new equipment on the other side!"

"_Nick_!" Fangmeyer complained.

He blinked and turned to his superior. "Oh, right. No, I'm not afraid to go in there. Let's go."

The tiger sighed as she turned her attention to the last and smallest member of their team. "Judy? You good?"

Judy nodded. "Not a problem for me!" She cast a glance at her own partner. "And Nick's right. This does feel a lot like how when we found where Mayor Lionheart was hiding all of the savage mammal. At Cliffside."

"Okay," Fangmeyer concluded, "then it has been decided. We go in. So first thing's first: We need to find a way through that door." She walked over to the door at gave it an experimental pull. To her shock, it gave away a crack. "It's… open." Considering the place they were in, the most lavish door being unlocked was the last thing she expected. Either way, after only a moment's hesitation, her cop instincts kicked in. "Wolford, you're going through with me first. Hopps and Wilde, wait for us on this side until we radio in that you're clear to go through. James, ready?"

Wolford moved to her side. "Let's do this."

Together, they cautiously opened the door to reveal a very tiny corridor, noting how the air seemed to move past them and fill this small space. "Just another door," she told Nick and Judy who stood behind. "Also too murky to see through."

Nick motioned for them to continue. "That second door won't open while this first one isn't closed if the entire thing is working correctly. It's to do with the whole air isolation thing!"

Nodding, Fangmeyer let the door close behind her and Wolford. She waited, trying to feel her surroundings and gleam if anything might be off. All the scents apart from her partner were old and stale, nor was she able to feel anything off apart from the general creepiness of being in the small space. From overhead, a ventilator got to work circulating the air. Pawing her radio, she could only just make out the fuzzy outlines of Nick and Judy waiting on the other side. "_So far so good. We're ready to open the second door. __Radio check__?"_

Judy answered. "_Loud and clear. Nothing new here." _A short pause. "_Nick says not to worry about the air vents. That's just the airlock doing its thing._"

She really hoped he was right about that. Taking in a deep breath and readying her tranquilizer, Fangmeyer grasped the handle on the second door and gave it a twist. Despite now expecting it to, she was still surprised when after a bit of resistance, the door also opened. Using it as cover, the two officers peered around it to get their first look of what lay in front of them.

Hopps and Wilde were right, this really was a lot like Cliffside. Just as when Fangmeyer and Wolford had helped with apprehending all of the mammals working there during the missing mammals case, there was no mistaking the much newer equipment compared to the surroundings. Not as much of a technological clash as Cliffside, but still evidently there. Desks held computers that could not have been and older than a couple of years. Next to them, occupying the largest area of the room was what she could only describe as a chemist's wet dream. Half broken and worn down with age, but a chemical lab of sorts for sure. And some of the glassware, like the computers, was far too pristine to be the same age as the rest.

So much for abandoned then.

But still, something odd tugged at Fangmeyer's nerves. Power was on, and now she understood why. But as she and Wolford scanned the room, she had to wonder. _Where was anyone?_

Perhaps they knew that the ZPD was coming in today and left town for the visit, that was unlikely. But why leave all the equipment behind? And as much as she hated to admit it, but this wasn't any chemical lab that Fangmeyer had ever run into when dealing with illegal drug manufacturers. This stuff was far too fancy and expensive compared to the cheapest material they would use in the pursuit of maximum profit.

Wolford in the meantime had finished circling the room. "Room's clear," he announced, "and I'm not smelling anything illicit," he added.

Fangmeyer nodded, the distraction causing her to remember that she forgot about two other officers. "_Hopps, Wilde, room is secure. You're clear to join us."_

As soon as she finished talking, the overhead ventilation started up once more in response to the airlock being opened again. Moments later, the bunny and fox duo joined them in this mysterious room. Wolford took the time to start taking pictures of the place for documentation.

"Dang, look at this place," Nick muttered as he too scanned the area. "Last time I was in a similar situation, I got jumped by a savage tiger." He looked at the walls. "Luckily I don't see any holding cells, and we're not looking for any missing mammals." Instead, he walked over to the most impressive looking of the computers, looking it over. "Should we try to turn it on?"

Fangmeyer also came over, noting how this computer was far more advanced than the junk tax-payer funded boxes that the ZPD uses. "What for? No only do I doubt that you'll be able to get past the log-in screen, but I also don't think we have the probable cause to hack into them either." She reached down and opened a desk and looked inside, finding several papers and pads with all sort of written scribbles on them that she couldn't understand. Other pages revealed schematics and other technical drawings. "We're here to find drugs. If we find them, then looking into the computers will be a whole new issue." A part of Fangmeyer reminded her that looking through this stuff wasn't part of her job, and that she really should close the cabinet and move on, but at the same time, why was she so interested in all of this? And why did it feel, despite her not being able to understand it, so familiar?

Flipping through the pages, she paused when a photograph caught her eye. No, it wasn't a photograph, but an advertisement. A poster. There was a caption on the bottom: _The ultimate in portable defense!_ Just above the caption was a stylized photo of a big-rig truck with the cargo container in focus. The top roof of the container was raised at an angle, as though open, with parts of if covered with thick smoke. Pulling out the poster and unfolding it, her eyes followed the trail of smoke that moved closer to the poster's 'camera'. Angled towards the reader, as though trying to escape the paper, and creating the smoke, was a drone. The very top of the poster confirmed it: _MQ-99, Gründer Industries_.

Fangmeyer felt like she was hit by a brick. "Hey, James, come and take a look at this," she muttered. He ran over, whistling as he glanced down at the poster. "This is something Skye and Savage will be interested in."

"No doubt," he replied, taking a picture of the poster. "You found it in that open drawer?"

As Fangmeyer nodded, a loud _thump _from somewhere overhead was heard, causing all four officer's eyes to snap up at the roof. "What was that?" she asked, "anyone seen anything?"

"Negative," Judy replied. The others also expressed their lack of doing anything.

"Sounded like it might be the ventilation system," Nick added as well, but sounding uncertain as he scanned the roof. "Perhaps it was an air pump turning on or something."

A bit of exposed fur on Fangmeyer's wrist rustled in the soft breeze, causing her to freeze. They were indoors. _Underground_. The air should be completely still. That is, unless the ventilation system was working like Wilde was saying. But was could cause it to turn on like that?

Her eyes found a metal ventilation cover in the roof. "Hopps, think you can fit up there if I lift you up?"

"That won't be a problem!" Judy's reply came quickly. She moved over to Fangmeyer, looking up to the roof and inspecting the vent entrance. "Yeah, I can certainly fit up there." She then turned the other officer, one ear lowered in a sign of confusion. "But why do you want me to go up there?"

Fangmeyer pointed up to the vent. "Either that's automated, and I sure hope it is," she answered, "but if it isn't, then someone had to turn it on. You're the only one small enough to find out what's in there and why someone would turn the ventilation on when we're inside." As she lowered herself to pick Judy up, she added, "but since we haven't seen anyone in here, I sure hope it's nothing. Just take a peak inside and I'll lower you back down."

"Okay, lift me up." Standing on Fangmeyer's paws, Judy found that she could comfortably reach the roof and was able to pry off the ventilation cover with little effort. "Can you lift me up a bit higher?" From below her, she could feel Fangmeyer adjust her positioning to give Judy a bit more elevation. A little bit of adjusting later, and she was able to peer inside the dark shaft. A click of her light and she was able to make out what was inside far better. "Not seeing anything unusual so far..." she commented as her eyes adjusted to the lower light levels. "...Uh, wait, no, there's something. There's guard railing here as though to protect small mammals. And writing as well..." she tried to focus her light beam, but it wasn't strong enough from where she was. "I think I'm small enough to crawl through there," she said. "Definitely looks like there's a whole another level to this building up here. I'm going to get a closer look."

Before she could pull herself up, she felt Fangmeyer move slightly from below her.

"You sure?" came the tiger's voice. "We won't be able to help you out if you will need help up there."

"Positive."

"Okay," Another bit of shuffling, and Judy was in position to pull herself up. "Be careful. We'll wait for you down here."

Now inside, Judy had to use her radio to communicate. "_Got it. Moving in now._" She slowly crawled forwards, using her flashlight to illuminate the path before her. Air moved past her head at a noticeable rate, but not with such an amount to be annoying or worse. Tilting her head in confusion at what she found, Judy started to describe what she was seeing. "_It's a ventilation shaft all right,"_ she radioed over, "_but there's more. I cane see railing, like a walking path for small mammals. Wait..."_ She moved her flashlight around, getting a better look. "_Yes, it's definitely some sort of passage. There's even directional signs. I can see… 'Exit' to the left and to the right, uh… 'Assembly shop'." _She crawled forward, pausing when she found to the side a small door, that when she tried to open, revealed a tiny office space just big enough to be cozy for a mouse or other sized mammal.

Adjusting her body, Judy was even able to fit mostly inside, with only her legs sticking out. Angled downwards, acting as an entire wall, was a window to an area down below. A quick inspection showed her that she was looking back down to the room where the other officers were in. "_Hey, Dahlia, see that computer… second desk across and two chairs down from the airlock. Can you move over there?" _She watched as Fangmeyer moved to where she asked. "_Look up. Tell me what you see._"

Fangmeyer looked up and stared right at Judy, but the tiger's expression wasn't one of recognition. "_Looks like a metallic plate of sorts,_" she radioed over. Nick and James also came over to take a look. "_I can see our reflection, but it doesn't look like anything important._"

Judy waved a paw in front of her before radioing over. "_Must be a one-way window then. I'm looking right at the three of you." _Below, Nick grinned and flashed a quick salute in her direction, mouthing a _'hi' _at the same time, but Judy could tell that he wasn't actually seeing her. "_Okay, I'm going to see what that assembly shop is about." _While crawling out of the tiny office, she hesitated at the sound of Fangmeyer radioing in to her again.

"_Judy, wait. What direction is it going off to? __In relation to us, that is.__"_

She had to turn her head to look out the 'window' again, but it wasn't too much help in guessing where the others had to look. "_Uh, check your right. __Edge of the room.__ Hard to guess from up here, but I think it's going to be further away than the walls of your room if I'm guessing correctly."_

"_Understood. Wilde, Wolford, go look __and see if you can find anything. Hopps? Proceed at your discretion. I'll wait for you here, we can use this room as a place to organize and work around with."_

Judy continued to crawl forward, taking the turn at the sign pointing to the 'Assembly shop". In many ways, crawling through the ventilation area felt really weird. Being a bunny, she really wasn't used to being the big mammal in an area, but right now, she really felt like a giant. To the side of her, a large metal mesh blocked off what might be another, unlabeled path. Highlighting it with her flashlight, she was able to see though.

_Air filtration unit 9D - Not an exit _

Huh, sounds like Nick was right about this part.

Her curiosity for this section filled, Judy resumed crawling alongside the railing. Following the sign directions, it didn't take her too long to get to her destination. More small doors. Trying one, Judy was glad to find that the first attempt was also unlocked. Just as she was guessing, it was to another tiny office, also with a large window to an area below. Poking her head inside, she scanned the place below.

Her eyes widened. "_Everyone, you won't believe what I am looking at over here. I'll try to take pictures, but I don't think I'll be able to get my phone into a good angle."_

The reply came in with a crackle of the radio as well as some audible grunting from whoever was trying to speak. "_Just a second, Wilde and I found an important looking door blocked off by a rather heavy shelf!"_ It was Wolford. "_What are you seeing over there?"_

Tapping the 'take picture' button several times at different positions, Judy hoped that she would get at least one usable image out of this. "_It's a machine shop of sorts, a very advanced one if a bit small," _she answered, "_I can see an airplane of sorts, but I can't tell what kind. Not one I recognize. It's taking up just about the entire room, impossible to miss."_

Another grunt over the radio was followed by another reply. "_We're __th__r__ough__, Hopps! And… Yes, there's the sign pointing us. Give us just a minute more."_

Now that Nick and James were on their way over, Judy's mind wandered to the remaining officer in their team. "_Dahlia, are you still waiting for me at the computer room?"_

"_I said I was, Hopps. Why? You see a way down into the new room?"_

Judy poked her head out of the office and looks. "_I don't."_

"_Then I'm staying here. Can't have you getting lost on us up there. __Keep me updated, everyone.__"_

When she made her way back to the tiny office, Judy saw below her as a door opened, allowing Nick and Wolford to get in. Immediately, the two split and started to clear the room to make sure that it was safe. Well, they would have been doing that if Wolford hadn't stopped dead in his tracks, visibly in distress the moment he lay his eyes on the strange aircraft. Judy clicked her radio. "_James, what's wrong?_" In many ways, it was slightly odd seeing him rather close to her, but his reply still coming in through the radio instead.

"It's that drone, Dahlia. _It's one of those __damned __MQ-99s. I don't know how they __even__ got one in here, but __I'm definitely looking at one__." _Wolford immediately pulled his phone out and also started taking his own pictures as Nick joined him. "_They got the inside __of that thing __open. I don't see any weapons, or any other internals for that matter. I think well need to bring this up to Tr- our advisers about this."_

Wolford stopped suddenly again, Nick almost bumping into him. A fraction of a second later, he had his tranquilizer pistol drawn and pointed. "_Sh__i-__, someone's in here! __Some kind of__ mouse!" _His attention on said mouse now, he started to immediately issue a series of rapid-fire orders._ "__ZPD! Don't move! __P__aws in the air! -__I said don't move! __He's making a break for it, get him Wilde!__"_

The two officers in the room broke into a run, quickly vanishing from view. Judy was already busy leaving the office space and crawling back as quickly as she could. "_Hopps __is__ returning to you, Dahlia._"

Ahead of them, Wolford and Wilde were busy chasing after this mouse. Despite their much higher speed of running, this suspect was using the environment to his full potential. Whereas they had to dodge and weave past and through all sorts of equipment and furniture, the mouse was able to dart underneath in a straight line. More repeated orders to stop were ignored, and so they gave up with shouting at him and instead focused on the chase.

Nick found a moment of opportunity, but in the middle of the chase, his aim was way off, especially on such a small target. The dart bounced off the concrete floor and skirted away harmlessly.

Wolford tried to get a flanking route to block off the mouse, but by the time he was able to vault over a tool desk, the mouse had slipped underneath a door which Wolford, in his haste to catch the suspect, slammed hard into with a pained grunt. He wasted valuable seconds grabbing the handle and tugging the door open, Nick darting past him as soon as a gap large enough was formed. His police training kicked in when he remembered to continue radioing in the directions the chase was taking to Fangmeyer and Hopps. "_We left the room, past the open door-" _Unfortunately, it was quite hard to run after Wilde and talk at the same time. "_Turning down a corridor! Sign says __subway station__! __Wilde__, try to cut him off!__"_

Running past a ventilation shaft blowing out some rather stale and foul smelling air, Wolford stumbled as he coughed, tearing his mask off in frustration. The delay again slowed him down, but he kept his eyes on Wilde's back and pushed on. "Nick, he's getting away! Don't lose him!" Ahead, the fox vaulted over a rolling desk that the mouse used to slide under.

The chase continued on. Down more corridors and turns. Past too many closed doors, each one meaning more precious time and distance lost on their suspect. Past a very important looking room that looked like the main hall for the entire underground system, but neither wolf nor fox payed any attention to it. There was a mouse to catch.

Unfortunately, they were too slow, and the mouse to quick and clever in his escape. Overtaking Nick down one of the many hallways, Wolford pushed through one more door just in time to see the mouse dart into what must be a small mammal sized train. Diving down to try and physically stop the thing from moving, his paws collided hard into a thick pane of glass that he hadn't even noticed was between him and the tiny rail line. It was only luck that his head didn't follow through with the collision as well.

He stared helplessly as the small vehicle began to move, picking up speed and disappearing down a dark tunnel. Another set of thick glass came down to close past where the train went into, and another hiss of air was heard as the air was vented into the room he and Wilde were now in.

Getting back up to his feet, Wolford cursed loudly and slammed a fist into a wall, ignoring the pain as he growled in anger at the failed chase.

Nick stared at the other officer, panting hard and bent over from the run. He also felt bad about letting a suspect escape, but he was worried at how agitated Wolford was acting. "Uh, Wolfy, calm down... I'm disappointed too... But-" His words froze in his mouth when Wolford let out a low, very hostile growl in response. He raised his paws to show that he meant no harm. "James..." The fur on the back of his neck stood up on its end when Nick realized that something was seriously beginning to feel _wrong_.

"Shut it, fox!" Wolford growled at Nick once more before shaking his head and grabbing his radio. "The m_ouse got away_," he announced, disappointment and anger thick in his voice. "_Bastard's got away."_

A short pause, then Fangmeyer answered back. "_Understood__. What happened?" _If she was also disappointed, she didn't sound like it.

"_He escaped by train! A tiny one that even the bunny won't be to fit in!" _Wolford growled back. "_Where were you two? We needed you!"_

"_We were following you, but we accidentally took a wrong turn. I'm sorry, James. We just reached that large room you described."_

"_You should have run faster!"_

Nick stared at the angry officer in shock. "Really, James? She's your _partner_. What's with you?" He closed his mouth when he earned himself yet another angry growl from the other officer.

Fangmeyer must have figured out how to use their work to distract them from the failure. "_Okay, let's all stay calm about this. Describe that mouse. We'll get topside and send out a lookout notice to all __police forces__ in the city."_

Nick gave a glance to Wolford and decided to let the officer cool off while he gave the description. "_Not much to go by, unfortunately," _he radioed over, "_guy was wearing white coveralls. And some sort of respirator or gas mask. I grantee you those will be ditched before he gets back to the surface."_

"_Darn. Okay then, Wilde. Hey, you wouldn't have any idea where that subway line goes? __And signs giving away any hints__?"_

Nick took a look through the double panes of thick glass. "_Negative on both, sorry."_

"_It happens. Okay, want us to come over to you guys, or do you want to return to us? I suspect there's loads of things to take a look at in this room. __Heh, __l__ooks like some kind of government seal on the floor."_

Again, Nick took a look back, but this time at Wolford. The other officer was leaning against a corner, growling and snarling, looking down right agitated. "_We'll come to you. James still looks very upset."_

"_Okay, we'll be waiting for you._" Fangmeyer answered. "_James? Talk to me. How are you feeling?"_

While Nick started to walk back down the direction they ran into, he stopped when he realized that Wolford wasn't following him. Instead, the wolf officer was now down on his knees, wheezing and groaning in between angry snarls. "Wolford? You hit somewhe-" Nick froze when his voice caused Wolford to look up at him.

And giving Nick a good look at the narrowing pupils of his eyes.

"_Officer Wolford, I asked you a question! What's your status? Nick, what's going on over there?"_

One of Nick's paws slowly went down to his tranquilizer pistol, brushing against the feathery fletching of the dart to confirm that the weapon was loaded and ready to be used. The other paw reached up and pushed the transmit button on the radio. "_F-Fangmeyer, __J-__Judy…" _His nervous voice grabbed more of Wolford's attention, who began to slowly approach Nick on all fours. Nick backed away slowly, keeping the distance away from the wolf the same.

"_Nick?" _It was Judy now. "_Nick, answer us __or we're going in__!"_

Unfortunately, the radio crackle was what it took to pull Wolford out of whatever was keeping him from moving quickly. With an angry snarl, he broke into a charge at the fox.

Nick let the tranquilizer fly, but his frightened reaction meant that the dart only narrowly missed lodging into the other officer. But in situations like this, a miss of a millimeter is just as useless as a miss by a mile. Spinning around, Nick broke into a sprint to get away from the wolf chasing after him. "_Wolford's gone savage!" _He cried into the radio, lungs burning as he found himself in another chase, but now in a desperate one for his life.

"_What?! __Nick, what's __happening__?_"

Wasn't what he just said enough?

"_Wolford's savage!" _Nick shouted into the radio again as he ran_. "Like Nighthowlers_!"

"_Shi- We're coming to you!"_

"_Negative! I'm coming to you!" _Damn it was hard to talk and run away from a savage wolf at the same time. Nick ran past a door, slamming it shut behind him. However, instead of blocking Wolford, the savage wolf slammed it right back open through shear momentum alone, emerging disoriented and shaking in pain, but still very much in the same corridor as Nick.

The fox stared in disbelief as Wolford returned his attention to him. "_Be ready to tranq him when I bring him to you," _he transmitted over, resuming the run before Wolford could fully regain his bearings.

"_Nick!"_

Won't they shut up and just listen for once? "_Just do it!"_

With a viscous growl from behind him, the chase was back on.


	13. Chapter 13

Bogo was waiting for them when they pulled into the underground ZPD parking garage, along with a short but stocky honey badger in a white lab coat and a antelope in nurse's blues. A pair of gurneys lay waiting nearby as well.

Andersen and Johnson only escorted them to the entrance of the precinct headquarters, where they killed the lights and sirens and drove off, bidding Judy and Fangmeyer a good day as they resumed with whatever task they had assigned that day. Turning into the underground parking garage, Judy spotted Bogo and the two medical mammals and drove towards them as quickly as she dared in the cramped space.

Pulling into an empty spot next to them, she killed the engine and unbuckled herself quickly, reaching over Nick and unlocking his door.

It was quickly opened and gloved reached for the still unconscious fox. "...Easy does it now, careful with him…"

Judy didn't move from her seat as she watched them haul her partner away, pulling him out of the car and into one of the waiting gurneys. Not even the warning growls from Wolford in the back distracted her from her unwavering gaze as it followed Nick's closed eyes.

"-fficer Hopps… Officer Hopps?"

Judy blinked, slowly turning her head to look at the antelope nurse only after recognizing that her name was being called. "Y-yes?"

The nurse smiled softly at her. "You don't need to worry about you're partner, he's in good paws. Want to step out of the car?"

Judy blinked again, then nodded. "Oh, yeah, I guess I should do that," she muttered, slowly getting around to actually doing that. Sliding out of the too-large-for-her seat and down to the ground, by the time she went around over to the others, they were already getting Wolford strapped down on the remaining gurney. The wolf was once again unconscious, an IV line running into one of his arms. Fangmeyer was standing protectively next to him.

Judy stopped next to the badger doctor, a strange feeling of recognition creeping over her. "Wait, I know you," she said when she finally found her voice, "you were at the asylum. With ex-mayor Lionheart... I arrested you."

The doctor, grinning, pointed a finger at Judy. "That you did, bunny," she replied. "And now I'm here taking care of the same fox who was with you. Small world, huh?" Her fingers uncurled and she offered her open paw to shake instead. "Dr. Madge Honey Badger. You can call me Honey. Foremost expert on Nighthowlers in this city, which by extension, if I may be a tad bold, the world."

Judy raised an eyebrow even as she accepted the paw and shook it. "They still allow you to work in the medical field after… the arrest?" Her eyes went back down away from Honey and to the unconscious forms of Nick and Wolford. "But if you really are that good, I'm not going to complain. But… please be careful with them..."

She felt a hoofed hand settle on her shoulder, and she glanced up at Bogo. The chief was looking down at her with a gentle expression that was quite unusual of him. "Let the doctor do her work, Hopps," he muttered, "the ZPD always keeps a close line of communication to her and her team in case we ever had to apprehend savage mammals again, even after Bellweather was caught. There's no better place for Wilde and Wolford to be right now."

Judy nodded. "I understand chief… But I still can't help but be worried." She watched as Honey and her assistant raised the two gurneys in preparation to roll them out of the garage. The sight of both Nick and Wolford, breathing masks over their muzzles and the steady beep of vitals monitoring equipment was very unsettling for her. So much, that as much as she didn't want to leave Nick's side, at the moment, she also wanted to be anywhere else but here. "I…" she frowned. "I guess I should go and start writing the report," she finally said, "get everything written down while it's still fresh." But as she turned to go, she was stopped when Bogo didn't let go of her shoulder.

"Don't worry about the report, Hopps," Bogo replied. "I want you to go with Doctor Honey. Fangmeyer too." At the sound of her name, Fangmeyer glanced up at the chief. "The doctor and I were discussing this when you were still driving over. You told us that you didn't find anything that could explain Wolford going savage. Then especially after Wilde went as well..."

That only made Judy feel even worse than before. "You think we might have Nighthowler in us as well, sir..." she mumbled. "...I guess I can see how that can make sense."

Bogo nodded. "I won't feel comfortable letting you go without having the two of you checked out. Doctor Honey insists it's only a simple procedure. Nothing to worry about."

Judy's nose started to quiver as the full realization of the implication of what Bogo was referring to hit her. Only the increased pressure on her shoulder brought her back from her thoughts.

"I didn't mean to upset you," Bogo said guiltily, "I just wanted you to know-"

"N-no, I understand sir," Judy hastily cut him off, "I would be worried about the same thing. If I were in your position."

Bogo nodded, then motioned at Honey. "Don't keep your partner ready."

Freeing herself from his grip, Judy shuffled over to Nick's gurney, staring at his sleeping form. A slight bit of comfort came to Judy with the fact that since they ventured down that tunnel, this was the first time she saw him actually looking at rest and peaceful.

"Since you need to go with us," Honey said from behind her, "there's room next to him so that you can ride along." Despite speaking softly, her voice was unexpected enough that it caused Judy to jump slightly from shock.

"I uh..." Feeling silly at the whole thing, Judy nevertheless jumped up on top of the gurney and sat down, immediately grabbing one of Nick's paws and placing it on her legs. Her own paws stroked his fur slowly almost out of their own accord as she nodded to signal that she was ready.

"What about you, Fangmeyer? It's not a big issue to get someone to help you over to the medical rooms," Honey asked the tiger.

Fangmeyer didn't even look away from Wolford as she answered. "No, it's okay. I want to walk."

Bogo opened the door for them to go through into the building proper. "I'll be in my office, keep me updated," he told the doctors. "Good, bad, I don't care. And don't try to sugar coat it either."

"Will do, chief," Honey replied courtly. Then to her assistant, "George, if you don't mind..."

Judy stared blankly at the walls as she rode Nick's gurney through the halls of the precinct, hardly paying attention even when Honey forced her to leave his side so that they can undergo the various testing that needed to be done. The badger went with Nick, leaving Judy with another assistant that she didn't bother remembering the name of. Not that she wanted to be rude, but she simply wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings at the moment, too worried about Nick to care about herself. Several times, she would try to ask for an update on Nick's status, only to receive a useless answer, usually along the lines of "he's doing fine, don't worry". Her own tests were rather uneventful, although she did receive some sort of bitter tablet that she was told to swallow, a small cup of water with it to help her take it down.

Then several hours later, she was finally allowed to leave the medical wing of the precinct, but with the explicit promise from her that she was going to spend the night within Precinct One's walls. It was an easy promise for Judy to make, since it meant that she would stay closer to Nick, and by extension, find out about his state sooner.

Plus, whatever they had given her had left her feeling somewhat queasy. A bumpy ride through Zootopia's subway lines was not something she minded missing out on. At first, she went up to the offices in search of Fangmeyer. The senior officer was in her cubical, fast asleep. The computer displaying the day's report were only filled with the date and names of the officers involved, with everything else blank.

Not wishing to disturb Fangmeyer, Judy headed back downstairs aimlessly. On her way down, she stopped in front of the doors to Bogo's office. Unable to explain to herself why she was even doing it, she gently knocked on the door, ears waiting for his gruff call out to let whoever was knocking on his door in. Instead, all she got was silence. Knocking again, she again didn't get an answer. Crouching over, she looked down at the crack between the door and the ground. Instead of the expected light from the office, she saw that the gap was dark. Bogo's office was empty. Strange.

Standing back up, she again let herself wander further downstairs, arriving over to the receptionist desk. Occupying Clawhauser's usual spot was the ibex officer of the evening shift. Judy stopped, and glanced at the clock on the back wall. Sure enough, it was well into the evening, so Clawhauser would have already ended his shift… about two and a half hours ago. Had she really missed the passage of time so much?

Approaching the reception desk, Judy cleared her throat. "Hey, uh, Peter… Have you seen Chief Bogo?"

The officer glanced down at her, an odd expression on his face. "Bogo left for home shortly after his shift ended, Hopps," he answered plainly. "Why are you asking?"

"Well, I uh..." Judy found herself stammering. "...Actually, I don't know," she finally concluded, almost to herself.

Officer Peter sighed and moved aside his nameplate so that he can look at Judy better. "Listen, Hopps. Judy. I don't know what happened today, since Bogo only gave me the bare minimum of information. Mainly, that I am not to allow you or the others there to leave this building for tonight. Well, not unless there will be a dire emergency, that is." He flicked his head over to the main entrance. "But think of it this way: do you really think that chief Bogo will allow himself to go home if he wasn't certain that everything was all right back here?"

Judy shook her head. "No, no he won't," she agreed.

Peter nodded. "So for what it's worth, I personally don't think you have anything to worry about." He gave Judy a smile and motioned towards the kitchen. "Grab some dinner, you look like you can use a nice warm meal. Might help cheer you up."

She even managed to return the smile as her stomach rumbled at the mentioning of food. "Yeah, sure, sounds like a good idea." Walking off, she waved a paw at him. "Thanks, Peter!"

Arriving at the kitchen, she peered inside the shared refrigerator and took out something that looked like it would be edible. Haphazardly tossing the bag of vegetables into a plastic bowl, she let the whole thing microwave for a minute before taking the warmed meal over to a table.

Sitting down, Judy realized that she just wasn't in the mood to actually eat it. Or perhaps it was still the queasiness from the pill she had to take, but it wasn't like she hadn't eaten through worse feeling before. No.. it was definitely her mood. She used a fork to nudge the steaming vegetables around the bowl, but other than the occasional smallest of bites, she didn't actually do anything about her appetite.

Normally, as much as she loved to complain about Nick's endless fooling around and terrible jokes, he somehow also always was able to read her mood perfectly. And through that, he also knew what to do or say to make her feel better. But he was back in some room somewhere, either asleep naturally or because of some drug pushed into his system, but out of it either way. So there she was, twirling a pea around the perimeter of her bowl, wondering when she would gather the courage to actually admit to herself that she wasn't in the mood to finish her meal.

Judy was still sitting at the table, her food long cold, when she barely noticed someone sitting down next to her. Slightly surprised that someone would do such a thing, she looked over to who it was. "Oh, hey Trigger..." Try as she might to put in even a _little_ effort into not sounding so down, she just couldn't get herself to do it.

The pilot placed his own dinner on the table and sat down behind it. "Hey, Judy," he greeted in turn. "Hey, uh..." Unlike her, he was quite eager to bite into his food as he spoke, so he also had to pause in between filling his mouth. "-I heard you came across a body today." He sat his plate down, scooting closer to her, examining her posture. "Was it that bad?" He tilted his head, curious. "And where's Wilde? Err… Nick?"

Judy blinked at her bowl. Truthfully speaking, she had completely forgotten about the body they had discovered when they had first arrived at the abandoned warehouse. But the body's information was radioed back to Clawhauser, who no doubt spread it to the rest of the station. But everything after they went down underground – everything that was actually leaving Judy feeling as she was now, didn't get told to the Precinct's gossip channels.

"No, Trigger, it's not about that… I..." her voice faltered, and Judy felt her eyes start to water all over again as she couldn't help but remember Nick's state. "...I don't want to talk about it," she forced out. To her relief, he backed away.

"Don't worry, Judy, I understand," Trigger said, then returned to eating his food in silence.

As he ate, Judy couldn't help but wish for him to get up and leave her alone completely, but as some more time passed, her contempt towards him lessened as she started to appreciate the fact that someone was nearby, but also giving her the space she was asking for by not insisting on talking. Just like something Nick would do. Unfortunately, this only served to increase Judy's need to be with her partner instead, so she minded her own thoughts and didn't say anything either.

Her theory that Trigger wasn't leaving her was only confirmed when he set his empty plate down in front of him, but didn't get up to even put it away. He simply propped up his elbows on the table next to the plate and rested his head on his paws, gaze staring in the vague direction in front of him.

Twirling around her food for some more, Judy decided that she was going to cut the tension in the air after all. "I really am just a dumb bunny," she said suddenly.

Trigger snorted as his head jolted. "Huh?"

Judy frowned when she realized that he had been well on his way to dozing off – something that Nick would _never_ do, unless he knew that the absurdity of the act would be in itself a distraction enough to lift her spirits. Something she was certain Trigger wasn't thinking about. "Trigger, if you're going to fall asleep, you have a place for that," she scolded. Later, she would feel slightly bad for chastising him like this, but right now, Judy either wanted him to actually be helping her, or leave her alone.

Trigger's ears folded over as he shrank away from her. "Sorry, Judy," he muttered quietly, "I uh… Guess I was more tired than I thought." Fidgeting in his seat, he adjusted himself to a less comfortable position, forcing himself to stay awake. "You were saying?"

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Judy figured it wouldn't hurt to try again. "I said 'I really am just a dumb bunny'."

Trigger tilted his head again. "Why?"

Staring down at how her legs were dangling off the chair, Judy answered. "Because. While today went… really bad, in the end, no one was actually seriously hurt. I was straight up told that Nick is fine, and yet all I can do is mope about and worry about him. So… dumb bunny."

"I wouldn't call yourself that," Trigger said slowly. "I think it's a perfectly natural thing to think. Emotions rarely follow logic, so even if you know one thing, you can't help but feel another. Can't always force the two to line up."

Judy hummed in agreement as she pondered her own conflict between what she was thinking and what she was feeling. "Yeah, I suppose so," she eventually muttered before falling silent again, allowing herself to admit that this wasn't actually helping her mood all that much. Maybe attempting a distraction will be what will help her. "So tell me about what you and Count were up to today."

Trigger raised an eyebrow at her. "I know what you're doing. Well, if you think it will actually work, then-" he proceeded to tell her how he and Count got to give a rather large talk about the drones they flew against to a group of officials. "-they didn't ever introduce themselves, but I'd wager there was both Ocelotians as well as some of you Animalians there as well." He then shrugged. "I don't know if you want to hear or not about what we actually talked about, but I don't think I'm allowed to actually tell you that. It's a type of 'I can tell you, but then I'll have to kill you' type of deal."

The quote even brought a slight slight smile to Judy's lips. "I made Nick watch that movie shortly after we brought you and Count in. He insists he doesn't care for it, but I suspect he rather liked it."

Another shrug from Trigger. "Can't get through fighter pilot training without seeing it at least once, really," he commented. "Actually, we had one writing assignment which was to point out everything in the movie that is wrong compared to actual fighter flying. Hate to break it to you, but it's basically the entire movie."

Judy grinned again. "Well, yeah. But when was the last time a cop movie actually showed what being a cop was actually like? Endless paperwork and boredom only occasionally intermixed by shear terror and excitement."

Trigger nodded in understanding. "You mean like today?" His eyes widened when Judy's ears, which had even lifted themselves up slightly during their conversation, instantly dropped again. "Oh, shi-, Judy, I- I'm… it just slipped out!" he stammered.

The freshly depressed Judy stared at her half-eaten dinner bowl. "I know, Trigger. Just… could have not used the reminder." Trigger, for his part, buried his muzzle into his paws, and she could swear she heard the phrase '_dumbass_' be murmured by him. And, as much as she wanted to enjoy being angry at him, hearing him scold himself instead of needed her brought a grin to her own muzzle. "Don't worry about it, Trigger, really."

Her grin that was matched by chuckling from a new arrival from behind.

"Trigger, are you being a dumbass again?"

Without looking up from his paws, Trigger groaned back. "I don't need your snarky attitude now, Count. Do us a favor and keep going."

Count, instead of listening to the advice, did the exact opposite and sat down next to Trigger and Judy. "Well, normally I would," he sneered, "but I brought a friend over. So no can do."

Trigger looked up, glare in his eyes. "Oh for f-. What _friend_?"

Judy, for her part, already saw exactly who it was Count twas referring to, as Jack Savage sat down on the other side of her. But her attention was focused between Trigger and Count. Sure, she was already familiar with how the two of them would sometimes not get along, but most of the time, they acted… fine with each other. So why the sudden hostility?

With Count still smirking, Trigger barely registered Jack's presence as he continued to glare at his fellow pilot. "Count, I swear I'm not in the mood for attitude. So unless you drop that smirk off, either you or I are leaving, but one of us _will go_." He started to gather the remains of his dinner in preparation to do just that. "You too, agent Savage," he said, finally recognizing the newest arrival. "Unless you have something useful to say, I'm gone."

Jack lifted a backpack up and placed it on top of the table in front of them. "Well, Trigger, actually, I think you will find it better that you remain here." Turning to Judy, he added, "Hopps, I heard about today… I'm sorry about what happened , if you think that will mean anything coming from me. But I think you will also find it nicer to stay and watch."

Judy nodded. "Yeah, sure, no problem," she replied back quietly.

Digging into his backpack, Jack started to explain why he arrived over with Count. "First thing's first, since you are all too polite to ask about it," he paused to point at his right ear, almost fully covered in a thick bandage. "For the past several days, I flew down to see this Four-Four-Four squadron for myself and- um... Something wrong?" He glanced at the two pilots, with Count failing to look uninterested in the conversation and Trigger fidgeting nervously in his seat. "Anything I should be aware about?" Savage asked uncertainly. "Count? Trigger?"

"Nope, nothing at all," Count quickly replied. "Someone try to gnaw your ear off?"

"If you mean by 'someone', you are actually referring to an Urusian bomb, then sure," Jack replied deadpan. "But then again, I did arrive right as the airbase had been relocated to a more forward position, so it's only natural to assume that the Urusians would try to counter attack." He paused again as he pondered his thoughts for a moment. "First of all, I want to express my deepest sympathies to the two of you for having to deal with a commanding officer as useless as Colonel McKinsey." Jack shook his head. "That warthog really has something eating at his tail, and I mean, really..."

"Yeah, McKinsey sucks, something that already told you," Count countered lamely. "What about the other thing?"

"Oh, well," Jack fidgeted. "Luckily for me, I was only there for two days, but here's something I don't get… Four-Four-Four is a front line unit, am I correct?" When both Trigger and Count nodded, he continued. "Well, along with finding myself in the middle of an Urusian bombing raid..." He pointed at his bandaged ear again, "...after all, I didn't get this by accident, so here's the other thing: I arrived there after a rather long flight and even longer drive in a military convoy. Let's just say I was quite hungry when I arrived, so can you imagine my pleasure when I saw that the only thing they had available was a plain bowl of old rice? _Contaminated with bugs__? That were still alive?_" He shook his head, snorting with amusement. "Every capable military knows that one of the easiest ways to keep morale up is to provide plentiful, good-tasting food. Something that was completely absent there. What was is that Naponyon said? 'An army marches on its stomach'?"

At the mention of their squadron's cuisine, Trigger's stomach noticeably rumbled, and even Count grimaced at the memories. Jack raised an eyebrow at the two's reactions.

"So yeah, something about that unit is really bothering me," he continued, "but in order to avoid rambling, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about." Rummaging a bit more through his backpack, pulling out a pair of envelopes. "Count, this one's for you. Well, you and Trigger both, but..." he handed over one of the envelopes, then the other two to Trigger. "And this one's yours."

As Trigger stared with wide eyes at the envelopes, Count skipped looking them over, choosing instead to tear right into his after only a brief moment of bothering to read from where it was from. "Mail call!" he called out, an uncharacteristic amount of pure joy in his voice as he pulled out the letter. "This one's from Tabloid!"

Jack grinned as he watched Count start to read through his mail. "So, aren't you going to read it out aloud?"

Flipping his still closed envelopes over, Trigger narrowed his eyes towards the ZIA agent. "You already read them," he said accusingly.

"Guilty as charged," Jack answered bluntly. "It's part of my job, what do you expect?" He turned his attention back to Count, grinning wide. "So, want to share with us?"

Count shrugged as he let out a huff of annoyance. "Yeah, sure," he muttered. "But only because bunny cop here is in a bad mood. God knows I have enough to deal with with Trigger." He brought the letter closer to himself and began to read:

"_Count, __Trigger,_

_D__on't know how much of this will make it past the censors, but here it goes:_

_Word got to us rather quick that you and __Trigger somehow survived getting your tails __shot down. And right over Zootopia, too! What are the odds of that, right? __Anyways, the Animalian bunny showed up asking questions about the two of you, and us in general, so I figured I can type this up real quick and let him have something to take back. So as for our base, what can I say? Don't know how much you two are able to keep up with the news, __but we're basically at a stalemate here. Even with the moving the __w__hole base up closer to the Urusians, until we do something about those arsenal birds, there's not much we can do._

_So first of, the good news: McDicks__e__y impressed someone high up enough that we __starting to receive more supplies. NOT FOOD though (it's still the same terrible stuff we all know and love. Worse than before, even). __No, it's a__mmo, fuel, spare parts, that sort of deal. __Don't know why they can't just throw in some fresh canned meals in with the rest is beyond me.__ And then the Urusians try to intercept that as much as they can, so we have to fly out to protect our own resupplies.__Actually, the missions these days remind me a lot of how things used to be before Trigger joined our squad._

_The bad: __Seems like the whole airforce is running low on good pilots. Seems like every new replacement we get only somehow barely earned a single line for their name, and that's only because 444 is fighting the other squadrons for pilots as hard as they are for us. Trigger:__**DON'T WORRY **__**ABOUT US**__**.**__ We're __starting to__ find our mojo again, __even if it's without the two of you__. Band__wolf__ does what he can __to help us out__, but you know him. __Although, personally, I think it's only down to the Urusians getting a little more confident ever since they realized they are not flying up against The Pilot With __T__he Three Strikes anymore. __Count: hate to admit it, but __yeah- you are the __better leader than I am. __BUT ONLY__ when you put your mind to it. __But since you're not here __with us__, __kind of a__moot point, isn'__t it? "_

Count paused the reading of the letter as he let out a triumphant whoop, flicking at the letter. "Hah! Told you, Tabloid!" he shouted gleefully, quickly spinning in place to face Trigger. "See? He even admits it!"

Trigger shrugged, chuckling slightly. "Yeah, but as he said, you're not flying now, are you?" Count stuck his tongue out before resuming reading the letter.

"_Anyways, the plan is for us to get the Urusians to fear all of us: One line, two lines. Doesn't matter. Still no one else with three lines on their tails, so you're the only one still, Trigger. But if we can get the Urusians to be afraid of attacking us, then perhaps we can even find the time to see about the situation in our kitchen. __I know, priorities._

_Also, one last thing: Apparently Mc__Dicks__ey wants something nice for Christmas this year, because he even allowed us to do something which I ever actually expected him to: I drew up a design for new shoulder patches for the squad. Was planning on surprising the two of you when we joined up again at the new location, but since you never got there, never got the chance to. Anyways, I slipped __in__ a set for the both of you, so you can at least look proper when you finally come back to us. __Hope they reach you safe and sound!_

_Not actually missing you much at all,_

_Tabloid_

_P.S. I think Scrap Queen wants to write something for __you, __Trigger. Didn't think she was the type for something like that, especially how much she can't stand you._

_P.P.S. -__" _Count hesitated as he read over the last part of the letter, glancing between Jack and Judy. The ZIA agent was smirking back at him, while the ZPD officer had a confused look as to why Count would suddenly stop reading suddenly like that. Her ears were as straight as they can be, eager to find out what Tabloid had written that got Count so worried over.

"So, Count,want to finish that up? Trigger asked, breaking the silence and waking Count up from his indecisiveness.

"Oh, well, yeah, sure. Not like Savage here doesn't already know what coming up anyways, here it goes:

_P.P.S. Speaking of food: If we ate the bunny, would it count as a war crime, or will it pass as collateral damage? Just my stomach thinking for me here."_

Judy's face distorted in disgust. "Eat Savage? _Gross_!" she complained. To his credit, Jack only smirked even more.

Finishing the letter, Count looked inside the envelop it came in. "There's nothing there..." he noted, cursing underneath his breath. "Stupid Ocelotian intel guys probably stole the badges." He folded the letter up and stuffed it into a pocket. "So, Tabloid wrote up a letter? Well, he was always more of a poetic type of guy, so I guess it's not too odd of him." Count himself let out a dreamy smile. "Didn't think getting news from home would feel this good. Say, Trigger, why don't you read your letter?"

Trigger still hadn't gotten around to even opening his, but he was interrupted by Jack.

"Actually, I know why the envelope didn't have the patches. I completely forgot about them," Jack said, again searching through his backpack. "Here they are!" He handed a pair to Trigger, and another to Count.

Count, for his part, gave them a glance and immediately let out an exaggerated groan, covering his eyes with an arm. "Seriously, Tabloid? _Really_?"

Trigger took his own set, eyes widening in surprise as he glanced over them. He slid one over to Judy so that she can see better. Her own reaction at seeing it was one of amusement.

The patch was of a circular design, an amber furred canine's head clutching a revolver in it's jaws, with a ribbon with the name 'Trigger' covering the neck area. Circling around the entire patch were the words, starting at the bottom: '_*444* STICK WITH TRIGGER AND YOU'LL MAKE IT THROUGH'._

"Seems like you really left an impression on them," Jack commented as he also looked over the patches again.

"I uh, was actually trying to avoid this kind of notoriety," Trigger said, but the slight grin on his muzzle betrayed the fact that he was clearly enjoying the new badge design. Setting down the one he was holding, he picked up his own letter again, using a claw to tear it open. He glanced at the first short line of text on the top, letting out an amused groan. "Yeah, it's from the Scrap Queen."

Count smirked, a knowing twinkle in his eyes. "That means you've _got_ to read it!"

Trigger was about to do just that, but another new voice from behind them stopped him.

"Couldn't you all have waited for me before starting that?" the tired voice of Nick came, announcing his arrival.

In a flash, Judy jumped off her chair and bolted over to him. "Nick!" Arms wide, she enveloped him in a deep hug. "Nick, I was so worried!" she mumbled into his chest.

"Carrots, stop! You're hurting!" Stumbling backwards from the force of her, Nick was able to pry her off as he then hobbled over to her abandoned chair and sat himself down on it with a groan. "Ugh, feel like crap," he complained, reaching over for a half-drunk glass of water before changing his mind and pushing it away. "Got bored and restless out of my mind, so I convinced the nurse to let me walk over here." He jerked his head off to the distance, where the antelope nurse from the garage was keeping a close eye on him, while still proving a polite gap between them for privacy. "Was hoping that a walk would help me feel less… sick." He let out a groan, wrapping his midsection with his arms as he bared his teeth in frustration. "Only seems to have made it worse."

Pulling another chair over to him, Judy sat down close to Nick, placing a paw on his lap. "How else are you feeling Nick? Still feeling like you are under the Nighthowlers, or is it all gone now?"

Nick looked away from Judy. "Still feel it quite a lot," he admitted with some hesitation. "Completely angry at the world... But whatever they pumped me full of… Too tired and too sick to care." As if to prove his point, a low growl rose from his throat, but he quickly suppressed it down with a deep breath. He then glanced over to Trigger. "So what about that letter? Could use some good news for today."

Trigger glanced down at his letter nervously. "Well, uh, I guess..." Unfolding it all the way, he began to read.

"_Hey Dumbass-" _Everyone around him erupted in laughter, forcing him to stop. Nick, with his lowered coordination, nearly fell off his chair, prevented only by the timely intervention of Judy. For her part, she decided to keep a closer eye on Nick after all.

"Guys, please," Trigger complained failing to hide his own smile from the introductory line, "if you aren't going to listen politely, I'm going to read it on my own. Count, especially you."

"Don't be like that, Strikes! Read it to us!" Nick complained as he re-righted himself on the seat, only to angrily shove the supporting hoof of the nurse away from him. A moment later, based on his suddenly hurt expression, he seemed to realize what he just did. "I- sorry 'bout that," he quickly mumbled.

The nurse shook his head. "Don't be. I can only imagine what you're feeling like right now. It's why I'm here, after all."

Judy watched over her partner carefully. "Are you sure Nick is fine being here right now?" she asked the nurse quietly.

"Well, no, not really," the nurse replied, ignoring the low growl from Nick who clearly disagreed with him. "He really should be in bed still, but officer Wilde was getting rather, um, unmanageable lying in bed. So, Doctor Honey finally allowed him to walk around the building for a bit, but she wants him back very soon." He answered Nick's growl with a stern look of authority that said clearly: No, Nick was not allowed to argue against it this time. "Very soon," he repeated, just to further shove the point home.

Nick, to his credit, was able to calm himself down enough to where the nurse felt comfortable enough to walk off in a search for his own seat. "Okay, let's just... ignore that little interruption," he said with a slight chuckle, adjusting the collar of his shirt. "So Stripes, the letter? What tales from the far corners of the globe have you received?" The nurse returned with a chair and a full cup of water, which this time Nick took eagerly.

Trigger returned his attention to the letter. "Right, so, to start again, here it goes:

_Hey Dumbass-_" Again, everyone started to laugh, though not so much as before, so he chose to ignore them and continued to read, only raising his voice enough to be heard by everyone and let them know that he wasn't going to stop again.

"_-Since I'm not good with this writing stuff, I'm just going to keep it short and let Tabloid do the rest._

_First: The new guys at base can't tell a flathead from a pawllips to save their own hides. I miss being able to yell at you and Count all day and still expect the work to be finished. So as soon as you two figure out a way back, we're waiting!_

_Second: Was talking to McKinsey in his office a while back when you were still with us. But then you flew out before I could give it to you. Consider it a late 'well done for not trashing your plane again' gift._

_Last: Laika's getting rather lonely without you. If you ever need a reason to convince yourself to rejoin us, think of her._

_Scrap Queen"_

Trigger finished reading the letter, and refolded it. "Well that was short. And to the point." Just like Count had, he looked inside the envelope only to find it empty. "Savage..." he warned.

"Already on it!" Jack replied back. Sure enough, he was searching for something in his backpack. "I know I have it in here somewhere, just give me a moment!"

Waiting for him to grab whatever he was looking for, Judy rested her chin on her elbow. "So Trigger, who's 'Laika'?" she asked in a teasing voice. "Got a girl back home?" From behind her head, she swore she heard Nick whisper something along the lines of '_some dumb cute bunny?'. _She struggled not to laugh and hoped desperately that her fur was going to hide the redness of her cheeks as she waited for the answer for her question.

But before Trigger could answer her, Jack let out a triumphant whoop.

"Found it!" He was holding a rather small rectangular paper. From the light shining on it and leaking through, it was clear that it was a photograph of sorts. "So, is that Laika?" he asked as he handed it over to Trigger.

"No, I doubt it," Trigger answered with a shake of his head. "Laika's-" Taking a look at the picture, his expression instantly softened, whatever he was saying forgotten.

"Our squad doesn't have anyone with the name or callsign of 'Laika'," Count clarified in Trigger's place. "Actually, Trigger, really. Who is this 'Laika'? And how does Scrap Queen know about her?" When Trigger didn't answer, he glanced over at the other pilot, still frozen in his seat as he stared at the picture. "Come on now, don't be rude, Trigger," he teased. "Come on! Let the rest of us have a look." Slowly reaching over, he noted how Trigger didn't react to his hoof slowly approaching the picture. Once close enough, he quickly snatched the item. "Thank you, Trigger, you're too kind!" Taking a look himself, Count broke into a wide grin, letting out a chuckle. "Ha! Always knew you had a girl!"

Seeing Count steal the picture, Judy quickly stood up on her chair. "Count, don't be mean!" she admonished. "Give it back!"

"Don't worry, I will," Count reassured her. "Here, take a look." He got up and moved over to the others. Since Savage had no doubt already seen it, he held the picture steady to where Nick and Judy could see it clearly.

The photo was that of Trigger, in his flight suit and in front of a fighter plane, but not focused on it. Standing right next to him was another golden-furred canine, a female, also in a flight suit. The two were captured in a moment of a playful fight, arms wrapped around each other's heads, whether right before or after a flight, Judy couldn't tell. Not that it even mattered.

What was odd, instead, was seeing the look of pure joy and delight on Trigger's face. The entire time Judy knew him, she couldn't ever recall ever seeing him so… happy.

"Aww, that's a really cure picture, Trigger," Judy complemented, moving closer to Nick so that she can be sure that he also has a clear view. Then, forgetting what his lasts words were, she asked, "take it that's Laika?"

"No!" Trigger gruffly replied, taking her slightly aback with his tone.

Lifting the picture away so that he can look at it again, Count took his time to appreciate it. "So, think you'll ever introduce her to me?" he asked. "Cure girl like her. Well, cute if I was into dogs, which I'm not." When Trigger didn't answer, he tore his gaze away from the photo and towards the pilot. "Come on, it's just a silly question!" he protested. "I can understand missing her and all, but I'm actually rather curious as to when you will think of introducing her to the rest of us-"

"Never!" Trigger growled back. Judy felt Nick tense from behind her. "You will never see her, Count!" Trigger repeated again. "Neither you nor anyone else, so shut up!"

Count frowned. "Why the anger, Trigger? Surely you're not-" He hesitated, slowly starting to grin, raising the picture far over Trigger's head in order to tease him. "Surely you're not _jealous_?"

"N-No, it's not that..." Trigger replied, his voice straining audibly.

Count frowned. "Then what in th-"

"S_he's dead_!"

Just like that, two words killed the mood in the entire room.

Trigger let out pained groan as he buried his head under his paws. "You... Won't… Because... she's dead!" he mumbled again, his voice repeatedly breaking.

Even Count looked genuinely upset at his earlier teasing. "Well… _Crap__." _Slowly, he lowered the picture and gently placed it on the table next to Trigger.

Judy held onto Nick's paw tightly as she struggled to think of what to say. Watching Count sit down next to Trigger, placing an arm around his shoulders, she felt helpless when she realized that she was hopelessly out of her league when it came to figuring out how to help the pilot. Trigger, for his part, was struggling to maintain even a pretense of any composure. Glancing over at Nick, who was sporting a frustrated expression, she knew that he was also trying to figure out if he could do anything. Deciding that remaining silent was the worst thing to do, she took in a deep breath. "Trigger-"

"_Don't_!" Count interrupted her, briefly glancing her way. "I know you want to help, but, don't." He pulled Trigger's head closer to himself, giving the upset pilot a slight shake of reassurance. "Just give him some time, all right?" Looking back at Nick and Judy, Count flicked his head down the hall. "Actually, if you want to help, probably will be best if you just go. All of you."

Judy glared back at the deer. Was he really telling them what to do immediately after what he himself had done? "Count, I don't think you're in a position to boss us around," she argued. "Why don't you ask Trigger?"

Count shook his head, then picked the picture up again, showing it to Nick and Judy once more. "I'm more in a position than you are," he said coldly. "For you, our war is… just something in the news. Gossip. But for Trigger and I? ...It's home. Not something you can understand." He let out a long sigh, giving Trigger another slight shake. "But okay then. Trigger, what do you want?"

"Please go," was the quiet answer. "Nick, Judy… Just… go." He slid deeper into Count's embrace, falling silent.

Judy was about to protest at being dismissed just like that, but a tap on the shoulder by Nick stopped her. "All right, we'll go then," she said as she stood up. "We'll all be spending the night here, so… if you'll want to not be alone-" her voice faded, but she had said enough, with Trigger nodding slightly to show that he heard.

"Come on, Fluff, let's leave them be for now." Nick slid off his seat, picking Judy up and pulling her along with him as he started to hobble off, the nurse walking close behind them. Turning around a corner, he emitted an angry growl. "Well today _sucked_." His paws clenched into tight fists.

Judy nodded in agreement. "Nick? It's not right for us to just walk away like this. He needs our help."

"Carrots, what Count said, about the war? I guess what I'm trying to say is that, for this time around, you should know when to quit. You know him: If he will want to come and talk to you, I'm sure he will."

"I guess," Judy mumbled. "Still doesn't feel right."

"I'm sure everyone in this building will be willing to help any way they can," the nurse reassured the both of them. "Just as long as the time will be right."

"Wilde! Hopps!" Jack came running up to them. He stopped next to them with a grim expression. "I just want to apologize for what happened back there," he said quickly. "If I had known, you know, about the picture? I wouldn't have..." He shuffled his legs nervously. "Uh, tomorrow's going to be a long day," he added hastily. "try to get some rest." He nudged Nick's shoulder. "Especially you, Wilde. Okay… Have a good night." With a slight polite smile, he walked away.

The nurse cleared his throat. "Nick? It's time for you to go back to the medical room. Time for another dose."

Nick's ears fell, his tail curling between his legs as he let out an involuntary whimper. "Right, okay. Carrots, care to join me? Keep me company?"

Judy looked up at the nurse, who nodded his approval. "Sure, Nick," she then answered, a small smile returning to her. She grabbed one of his paws and held it with her own. "I'd love to."


	14. Chapter 14

"-Judy?"

The bunny let out an annoyed groan, trying to ignore the voice that so suddenly had interrupted her sleep. Wait… How can someone be trying to wake her up if she was in her dingy little apartment?

"J-Judy, please wake up. I need to talk to you."

Purple eyes shot open, trying to peer through the darkness. It was also then that her mind turned on enough for her to recognize the voice as belonging to a certain familiar coyote. "Trigger? What?" Rubbing her eyes, Judy sat up as she started to remember where she was.

Oh, right, still at the station, not her apartment. Having stayed with Nick and talked with him late into the evening while he was busy receiving his latest round of Nighthowler medication, she vaguely recalled being too tired and lazy to search for her own place to sleep, and simply improvised. She sat up from where she had slept on a large chair, having dragged over one of the large-mammal sized ones over to Nick's bed, and she must have fallen asleep on it some time ago, still in her work clothes. Speaking of the fox: Turning her head, she found Nick next to her, still fast asleep, his open muzzle and tongue faintly illuminated by the machine next to his head, quietly monitoring his vital signs. On the other side from him was a privacy curtain, but she knew that Wolford was to be found on the next bed over, undoubtedly also asleep.

"Judy? Please-"

Groaning again, Judy turned back to the source of the voice. Trigger was standing next to her, shuffling his feet nervously and rubbing his arms. "Okay, okay, what?" She rubbed her eyes again, annoyed how this was reminding her _way_ too much of when she still lived back in Bunnyburrow, with all her siblings, and the inevitable wake-up-from-a-younger-sister-who-had-a-bad-night which that entailed. A feeling that Judy didn't miss at all in her current apartment.

"Can we go somewhere? Alone?"

Judy slid herself back so that she could support herself on the chair's backrest. "Trigger," she mumbled with barely suppressed annoyance, "you wake me up I don't know how early, and you can't even tell me plainly what you want?" His whimper of a reply was ignored by her, but she still raised a paw to stop him from talking further. "Just give me a moment, okay?" She took a few deep breaths, letting the cool room air fill her several times to help her in waking up enough to where she felt confident enough to walk around without bumping into anything. Sliding off the chair, she stood next to Trigger, trying to get a better look at him despite the darkness. "Fine, let's go somewhere private," she grumbled and followed him as he wordlessly turned and walked out of the room and let her into a nearby storage closet.

With a flick of a switch a single light bulb overhead crackled to a dim life. He closed the door and cleared some space at a small table, pulling for her a small chair before sitting down on one himself.

Taking the offered seat, Judy watched Trigger, waiting for him to make the first move. When he didn't, she decided to be the one to start. "So, you brought me here because..?"

Trigger's ears folded back from her sarcastic tone. "I… I just found this room on the way over. It's small, and um, filthy..." he mumbled back nervously. "But yeah… Um, I… I wanted to apologize. For yesterday evening? Just brushing you and Nick off like how I did?.. I know you wanted to help, so I want to say I'm sorry."

Feeling her pockets around, Judy pulled out her phone. "Apologize?" she repeated, turning the screen on and almost blinding herself from looking at the time on the screen. "Trigger, it's two in the morning!" she complained loudly, putting the phone back in her pocket. "Couldn't you have waited until regular morning?"

"-Couldn't sleep," came the ashamed reply.

Despite herself, Judy startle to chuckle quietly. "Sorry," she hurried to explain her behavior. "Just, I'm normally what you would consider a 'morning mammal'. Just ask Nick. But what it also means that when I want to sleep, I'm _out_. You kinda interrupted that." Calming herself down, she reached out and placed her paw on Trigger's, much like she would with Nick. "There's more to this, isn't there?" she asked gently. "You didn't really wake me up just to apologize? Didn't you?"

Looking ashamed, Trigger shook his head, pulling his paw away from under hers and towards one of his own pockets. Moments later, he pulled out the picture and one of the shoulder patches from before. "Didn't know who else to go to," he admitted, "don't know the other cops around here too well, especially those on night shift. And Count?" his voice hitched, his next words coming out in a dark, bitter tone. "Count wouldn't understand. Not this early in the morning. Nearly murdered me on the spot for waking him."

Judy shuffled closer to him. "No, Trigger, it's all right, I understand," she reassured him. "Here in the ZPD, we're here to help. Even at these odd hours of the night."

Trigger snorted. "Yeah, sure you do," he mumbled sarcastically.

For his comment, Judy punched him gently in the arm. Not playfully, as she would with Nick all the time, but not hard enough to hurt either. "Trigger!" she scolded, "don't be like that! I know some of the officers like to give you and Count the could shoulder, but we still want to help. They just don't know how to express it."

"Or perhaps they know not to get too close to killers," Trigger shot back, his hands forming into fists, dropping the picture in the process. "Can't bee seen fraternizing with someone with a body count, if you want to take a hint."

Judy stood, eyes narrowing, and pointed at herself. "Well even if they don't want to help you, as you insist, I hardly think you know better than me as to what _I _want to do! _I _know that I want to help!" Her voice lowered as she remembered that not too far away from two mammals who really needed their sleep. "And Nick? James and Dahlia? They wouldn't keep volunteering to watch out for you and Count if they considered it a waste of time." She reached over to the picture, and when Trigger didn't stop her, took it and brought it closer to her. "I know you're hurting," she said, now her voice barely above a whisper, "and you have every right to be, but please don't project that on others and to what they think." Looking down at the picture, she couldn't help but smile at how much nicer he looked there. "So what was her name then?" Judy asked quietly. "Never got a chance to find out last night."

"K-Kate," Trigger stuttered, choking on his own voice. "B-but in the air, sh-she- they c-c-" he let out a growl of frustration at his inability to talk properly. "B-Brownie. Her n-" he cursed beneath his breath, and then gave up trying to complete the sentence.

Judy waited patiently for him as he clenched his fists tighter, taking in deep breaths in a vain attempt to wrestle control over himself. "Easy there," she said gently, standing up in her chair so that she can place her pawn on his shoulders. "Long, even, steady breaths. Trigger, if you don't want to, we don't have to talk about it.."

Trigger shook his head, his breathing slowly coming to a more controlled tempo. "N-no, I want to," he said, "just… might take me a c-couple of tries." Reaching over his shoulder, he took the picture back from Judy, but still help it close to her so that she can still see it. Taking a few more deep breaths, he started to tell her the story.

"W-we met at fighter pilot school," Trigger said, pointing at the plane in the background with his free paw. "That's one of the trainers there. At first, we didn't actually get along too well. We… we were always competing with one another. Argued together even more, so we tried to avoid one another. But, being the only coyotes in the entire training group? Though actually..." he frowned, running a claw around her outline on the picture. "She wasn't actually fully coyote. Coywolf, you know? Like, half coyote, and half wolf? Maybe more wolf. Doesn't matter. Important thing was that she was a hybrid, so for all of the wolves in the class, it made us stand out from them."

By now, Trigger's speaking was almost back to normal, and talking came naturally to him again. "So about Brownie and I… Because I am a guy and she's well, a girl, and because of what we both were..? Yeah, you can only imagine the teasing we both received from everyone. Though I think I actually had it better than her. Guess even as you get older, and even switch countries, some things never change... So anyways, to the other canines there, to them? I was just Little Coyote Hu-"

He froze, nervously glancing at Judy before forcing his eyes back to the picture.

"I was just Little Coyote Trigger to them," he corrected himself. "But K-Kate… a lot of them were never able to let go of the fact that she wasn't entirely wolf. So they tried to force us together, just for the fun of it. Try to humiliate the two of us with half the effort. A word here, a comment there… At first, it only served to further separate us, just to spite them. We would purposely avoid one another, but it never seemed to stop them from trying. On top of it all, she was always proud of her wolf heritage, although she also didn't shy away from the part of her that was coyote. But I think the more they tried to push us together, the more they also made her feel different from them. And yet, through it all, she never did hate me for what I was, and because of that… I also…"

He nervously glanced at Judy again before resuming his story.

"So yeah, the teasing never stopped. Then one day, I had this idea... To simply agreed to pretend at hanging out together just to shut them up once and for all. She agreed to try it out." By this point, Trigger was wearing a blissful smile as he recalled whatever had happened back then. "The teasing didn't stop, but it did change. But by then… we just kinda clicked together. One thing let to another… and well, you know how it goes. Guess everyone at fighter school were right all along… Think their teasing did stop when they realized that we actually _enjoyed_ hanging out together. Something that a lot of them only got to look forward to on the rarest of occasions when they were able to leave the base. And our _flying_? Best pair in the sky! Best scores in the classes..."

He then brought the picture back closer to himself, running a finger along its smooth surface, tracing Brownie's outline again. "-Then again, Kate and I always did think that it was only going to be a temporary fling," he continued with his story, "we both figured that as soon as we got out of fighter school and into a real squadron, that we won't be able to see each other anymore. So I guess… I guess we let ourselves let our guard down in the name of some harmless fun." Trigger paused again, staring at the picture in silence.

Again, Judy waited patiently for him to continue on with his story, not minding the odd moments when neither of them said anything. Instead, she let her mind wander while she waited for him to find his voice again.

"Sure enough, we were assigned different squads," Trigger suddenly said, almost catching Judy off guard. "But we didn't expect for the two squadrons to be housed at the same airbase. So we got to see each other more, and… we got even closer. I certainly didn't mind. I'm sure she didn't mind either. In fact, I'm certain that when the squad leaders caught on to the two of us, they made sure to have us fly up at the same time, to encourage a type of competition between us." By now, his smile from before had vanished and was replaced in a cold expression of anger.

Trigger let out another growl, dropping the picture so that he won't damage it as he formed fists again from his anger. "Then the fu- st-stupid war started," he explained, his voice dropping into a low pitch, seething with venom and disdain. "And we went up together even then. But it wasn't like we had a choice. The whole air force was mobilized. And then… we went on the offensive, paving way for ground forces. Hope was to end the war quickly..." Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Judy. "Three guesses how that went. First two don't count."

Despite what would normally be considered a joke, he instead let out another growl, his fists tightening even further. "It was an ambush," he muttered simply. "We were lured into a drone kill-zone. Our squadrons were tasked with buying time for the others to try and retreat, but her plane got hit early on. Flight Lead forced her to fly back, citing that her damaged plane was useless at helping anyone else out and she was only hurting us by staying in the AO. So with an escort, she flew out. That was when _he_ showed up."

Trigger's fists relaxed, but only to allow him to raise his paws up to his head and cover his watering eyes. "Sh-she knew she never had a chance," he whimpered, "th-the escort was shot down first. Then _he_\- he just toyed with her! Her, in her damaged plane? All she was able to do was to try and run!.. She was scared out of her mind, an- and we were too far away! And all h-he wanted was his p-perfect shot!" He let out a despaired groan, pushing his paws hard into his skull. "H- her last words to me… _She __was __begg__ing__ me for help_! B-begging m-me-" His words failed him as his breathing verged into hyperventilation.

Judy stood and hugged his head, rubbing her paws over the back of his ears in a faint attempt to help him calm down. As before, she repeatedly talked to him in a gentle voice, trying to ground him into the current moment rather than whatever was tormenting him in the past.

"I- I miss her so much..." Trigger whimpered, causing Judy to increase her hug around his head.

To her relief, he didn't try to fight off her embrace like she feared he might try to do, and instead allowed her to help him as he descended further into his grieving. "It's okay, Trigger," she spoke softly to him, "it's okay to let it out. You don't have to keep hiding it." Sure enough, at her urging, whatever remained of his composure completely broke as Trigger buried his muzzle into her shoulder, the first of his wails escaping him suddenly and violently. Judy had to force herself not to try and escape the noise being emitted so close to her sensitive ears, but she was able to stay put and continue to do everything she can, letting him release all of his pent up emotion into her. "it's okay," she repeated softly, one of her paws stroking him between the ears like she knew Nick really liked. "Don't be afraid to let it out. Just let it go." Whether he heard her or not, but Trigger continued to cry into her shoulder, his own arms wrapping around her in a tight embrace as he tried to lessen his body's shaking from his uneven, ragged breathing in between sobs.

It took some time, but eventually his breathing softened into a more steady and softer pace as Trigger's grief started to wane. As though realizing where he was, he suddenly pulled back away from Judy, shaking his head away from her shoulder and grip. Though slightly hurt at his rather sudden action, she also knew that it was simply Trigger being himself and didn't allow his actions get to her.

"Damn, I'm such a mess," Trigger mumbled as he rubbed his eyes in a desperate attempt to dry them, looking completely ashamed at his behavior.

Judy let out a small if sad smile and placed a paw on his shoulder. "No, Trigger, you are not a mess," she reassured him. "You're just going through a hard time, that's all. It's natural. Nothing to be ashamed of."

"Yeah, sure," he grumbled back. "Can you imagine other's reactions if they find out about this? That Three Strikes himself was crying like a pup in front of a bunny cop?"

Judy let out a long sigh, staring at him directly in the eyes. "Trigger, you said it yourself," she explained gently, "there's a war on. No, I don't know what it's like there. No one in this station know what it's like over there. But don't you mistake our lack of direct experience with an inability to empathize and understand." She gave him a slight smile. "We're cops. Having to deal with mammals who did something stupid in response to their own troubles is a… less than glamorous part of our job. So at the very least, trust me when I say that I know what it can look like when someone holds their feelings inside of them too the point where they snap."

Trigger's gaze wavered, and he looked down at the floor, sniffling quietly. Silently, he reached across the table to where he had dropped the shoulder patch and slid it back over close to them. "They all look up to me," he muttered softly, clawed finger tracing the words running across the patch. "I'm the one who's supposed to be there for them when they had enough. Not the other way around." He reached for Brownie's picture, moving it over alongside the patch so that he can look at both at the same time. "I haven't even flown in a while now. They are still going up there, day after day, and I am down here. They… they would _kill_ to be here." His voice quivered slightly. "So why do I feel like this?"

"Even heroes need their own heroes," Judy answered calmly. "Like I said, there's no shame in letting go at a place like this. Because if not here and now, then when and where? Even Supermammal has his moments."

"Supermammal ain't real," Trigger countered defensively, gaze still wavering between the patch and picture. "Truth be told, this was the first time I really had the time to process all of this," he admitted. This did catch Judy off guard. "Brownie being k-killed. Everything after that..."

"What do you mean this was the first time?" Judy asked.

He sighed sorrowfully. "After she was shot down, I never had the time to really think about it," he explained. "Right after we landed, we were already preparing for the next mission. Only a week later, I flew up against the Urusians again." His gaze hardened into anger. "Which went even worse. That was when I decided to transfer to four-four-four. And especially once there, I never had the time to really think about what happened." His gaze softened again, the anger leaving his muzzle. "I guess I got so used to not thinking about it, that when Savage brought the picture, it caught me off guard."

Finally tearing his eyes away from the picture, he looked over at Judy. "Should you bump into him before I do tomorrow, err, later today, I want you to let him know..." he waved the picture in front of Judy slightly. "I'm really glad he brought it over. Never expected to see this again." As his eyes started to water over again, he glanced away from her, shame in his gaze. "Maybe… maybe you're right about me," he muttered, "about needling to let go and admit that I feel this way. But, I don't know… I still feel like it's not right for me to be like this. The 'Three Strikes' and all that..." He looked at Judy nervously. "You have no idea how much I will appreciate it if you won't mention what happened here."

"Sure, I can do that," Judy offered with a smile, "Not Nick, or James and Dahlia. Not even the chief. What happens in this room stays in this room."

Trigger returned her smile with a genuine one of his own. "Yeah," he said wistfully, "I think I'd like that." Then, to Judy's even greater surprise, he reached his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. "Nick's so lucky to have you as his partner," he muttered into her ear. The comment brought joy to Judy as she heard it.

"Don't worry," she replied, "he might never say it, but I know that Nick knows it." She felt Trigger's grip loosen and he separated away from her, looking somewhat embarrassed as he gathered the picture and shoulder patch, placing both back into his pocket. "You sure you'll be all right?" Judy asked, concern again slipping in her tone. "I don't mind staying in here for longer." 

He shook his head. "You've got work tomorrow, and I'm sure Count and I'll be made to be useful as well," he explained hurriedly. "Uh, correction, today already. So all the more reason for me to let you go back to sleep."

As he started to stare at the floor again, Judy took a step towards him. "You sure you'll be all right?" she repeated again.

Trigger swallowed as he pulled out the picture again. "No," he answered truthfully, staring at it. "I won't even pretend that I will be able to fake it around you. But you've helped, Judy, really. There rest… I just need time to process it all. Also, I think I'll rather be alone now." He suddenly chuckled as he reached over to the wall, flipping the light switch off and engulfing the two of them in darkness. "If only the Urusians could see me now," he said, explaining his laughing. "How much will they pay to find out-? Three Strikes brought down by a simple picture..." His chuckling faded away as his mood sobered again.

Judy, still blinking in the darkness, felt his paws grab her by her shoulders and gently push her out of the room. Letting Trigger guide her, they left the room and out to the dimly lit corridor where she could at least see well enough again to know where to go.

"Good night, Judy."

Turning around to return the gesture, Judy froze when she found herself watching him slowly walk off in the other direction, tail limp and ears flat over his head. "Good night… Trigger." A large part of her wanted to run over and embrace him again, but Judy wanted to respect his wishes, and let him walk off. With a heavy sigh, she turned and walked back to the chair next to Nick's bed. Her fox was still fast asleep, the machines next to him quietly still beeping away with his vitals. As she watched him, Judy felt her fatigue return to her quickly, hitting her like a brick wall and reminding her that she will only have a couple of precious hours before she would need to wake up again proper.

Deciding that she was too lazy to walk about the station in search of a change of clothes, she grabbed a spare towel from next to Nick's bed, and using it as a blanked, curled up back on the chair just as before. "Good night to you too, Nick," she mumbled sleepily, closing her eyes, "if you can hear me."

Within moments, she was fast asleep.

"-Judy? Judy, time to wake up."

Groaning again, the towel slid off her as Judy slid upwards, blinking at the now much brighter room. "Huh, wha-?" Muffled laughter from close to her and overhead caused Judy to look up at Fangmeyer.

The tiger officer was holding her arm over her mouth, but her shaking shoulders betrayed laughter. "Wake up, sleepy bunny," she managed to say again. "Chief wants to see us in his office before the morning brief at the bullpen." She tilted her head at Judy. "You're really out of it, aren't you?" she asked, "considering how Nick always complains about you being the morning bundle of energy?"

Taking her phone out, Judy glanced at the time. Less than an hour before the morning brief. Which, combined with the now morning meeting with Bogo as well, meant that she didn't have a lot of time at all. "Yeah, can say that I'm out of it," Judy agreed. "Was a… interesting night." She glanced to her side in Nick's direction. The privacy curtain was partially pulled back, allowing her to see her very groggy partner being inspected by Doctor Honey. He noticed Judy watching him.

"Morning, Fluff," Nick greeted, immediately breaking out into a long yawn. "How are you on this absolutely fine morning? I-" he yelped as Honey poked him a bit too hard at a sensitive spot. "Doc! Watch it!" he complained, rubbing his side. "How long is this going to take, anyways?"

"Longer than it's supposed to if you keep this up," Honey replied without stopping her examination. "Now sit still and let me work."

Nick glanced back at Judy, eyes wide and ears folded flat in a 'puppy dog' expression. '_Save me!_' he mouthed, causing her to break out into giggles.

Then just as suddenly, Judy's view of Nick was blocked off when she found herself staring at Honey's nurse assistant. Her mind scrambled to remember his name, but came up blank.

"Morning, officer Hopps!" the nurse greeted. "I know your chief wants to have a chat with you really soon, so I'll make my examination quick." Sure enough, he lead Judy through some simple tests and checks, and within a matter of a couple of minutes, was done. "So if you're not feeling anything from last night's medications, there's no reason why you aren't fit for work today," he concluded. "Officer Hopps, you passed with a clean bill of health."

Fangmeyer nodded in satisfaction at Judy. "Good, you're all clean," she confirmed, "now let's get up to Bogo's office before he gets mad at us." She held up a warm paper bowl of hot cereal for Judy. "As an added bonus, I got you some breakfast, courtesy Precinct One's pantry. She waited as Judy got up and out of the chair she was sleeping on, yawning loudly again and using her paws to try and smooth out some of the wrinkles in her clothes. "That's one way to save time on changing," Fangmeyer said with a grin, handing over the bowl.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep in it, it just happened!" Judy protested, but gratefully took the breakfast and started munching it down quickly. Quickly turning around, she waved at Nick. "Fangmeyer and I got to go up to Bogo's. Later, Nick!"

Nick simply waved her off. "Don't leave me for too long, Carrots! Don't want my body to start rotting away." He was about to say something more, only to be interrupted by Doctor Honey fussing at him again to pay attention to her tests.

Together, Judy and Fangmeyer walked down the precinct's corridors. Quickly consuming what was left of her bowl, Judy tossed it into a nearby bin. "So how's James?" she asked. While she got to see Nick both last night and a bit this morning, she only vaguely remembered seeing Wolford asleep on the bed and that was it.

"Doing remarkable well," Fangmeyer answered, relief in her voice. "Didn't take much to wake him up this morning, and he didn't complain of any bad feelings. Did fall asleep all over again the moment Honey let him though." She grinned down at Judy. "I did hear that Nick even managed to walk around lat night. Can't believe I missed it."

Judy shrugged. "There wasn't much to see. He was still clearly under some Nighthowler influence, and otherwise was basically a fox zombie."

The two of them talked a bit more about random things before they arrived at the door to Bogo's office. Fangmeyer knocked politely, and they were called in barely a moment later.

"Officers Fangmeyer, Hopps, good. Have a seat." While Bogo lacked his usual barely-suppressed anger, he still didn't waste any words either. As soon as the two officers sat down in front of his desk, he got right to the point. "Doctor Honey sent me a preliminary report on Wilde and Wolford just now, probably while the two of you were walking over here," he explained. "The good news: they are both doing fine and should largely be back to their own behavior." He snorted. "Though with Wilde, I'm not sure if that's a good thing. I will miss being able to dart him guilt free."

Despite herself, Judy couldn't help but grin at his comment. As much as she enjoyed working with Nick, she also knew very well that the precinct's famous back and forth between Bogo and Nick, while great to watch, did sometimes cross the line when Bogo wouldn't be in the mood for Nick's commentary.

Pretending not to notice her grin, Bogo continued. "And the reports on the two of you also don't have anything to worry about, so, unfortunately, I will expect both of you to be working today."

Judy's ears perked up. It was something that she thought of on the way over to his office, and now was the perfect time to bring it up. "Yes, about that sir," she hurriedly said before he went off on something else, "sir, I want to volunteer."

Bogo stared back at her. "Volunteer for what, officer Hopps?"

"-Uh," Judy was caught off guard by this question. "Why, to help with the investigation. As to why Nick and James both went savage underground yesterday." She smiled hopefully at Bogo. "That's what I want to volunteer for."

Leaning back in his seat, Bogo let out a long sigh, a hint of frustration in it. "That won't be happening Hopps," he informed her simply. Ignoring her open-mouthed look of shock, he continued to explain. "While I am known for encouraging my officers to volunteer for such tasks, provided they are all caught up with their previous work, in this specific case, you won't be able to do that for two simple reasons." He leaned forwards to look at Judy and Fangmeyer better. "The first and main reason is that, despite yesterday's incident involving not one but two of my officers, the ZPD will not be conducting an investigation into the matter. _Hopps_!" He paused in his explanation to shout Judy's name before she can interrupt him with her own protest, her ears dropping behind her back in reaction. Even Fangmeyer looked shock and ready to argue, but knew better than to open her mouth about it.

"The reason why there won't be an investigation," Bogo continued with a firm tone, informing the two officers that they are not to argue with him until he will be finished, "is because the matter has been kicked out of our jurisdiction. Both the ZIA, and unfortunately, even the Ocelotians want in on it thanks to that drone you found in there. And I'm afraid that in their eyes, having a bunch of gung-ho city cops running around and ruining things for them is out of the question, so as of this morning, we're being forced to keep our distance unless specified otherwise." As he spoke, Bogo glared at Judy and Fangmeyer, though in this case, his anger was clearly also not directed at either of them.

"And the second reason," Bogo said, his tone relaxing into a slightly gentler one, "is that I need the two of you for an unusual but important job today. Maybe even for more than today."

Judy's ears perked up again with interest, though not to their fullest extent as when something really grabs her attention. After all, she was on and off on 'unusual jobs', really, ever since Count and Trigger dropped in on Precinct One. Speaking of the pilots… "It's no about Count or Trigger?" Judy asked, her mind recalling what had happened just a few hours ago with Trigger. Had Bogo found out about it already somehow?

Bogo picked up a paper from his desk that he had lying ready. "No, not this time, Hopps. It's about Wilde and Wolford." Judy's ears perked up the rest of the way, and Fangmeyer leaned closer to Bogo's desk as well. Holding up the paper, not so that they can read it, but just so that the two officers can see what he was talking about, Bogo continued. "This is the medical report given to me by Doctor Honey on their status. Lots of jargon which I can't understand in here, unfortunately, and I doubt either of you can make any heads or tails out of it either. But more importantly, it has recommendations on actions to be done with them." Setting the paper back down on the desk, he glanced between Judy and Fangmeyer. "Long story short, both Wilde and Wolford could really use sunshine, fresh air, and preferably, some sort of gentle exercise. Chasing down preps is out of the question, but it's better for them to not spend their day in here writing reports. Or going home to sleep it off, for that matter. No matter how they might complain. However, since no one really knows yet too well how mammals react to Nighthowler medication yet, they will need someone to look after them, just in case the worst might happen and they will start to regress. Especially with what Doctor Honey theorizes is some sort of aerosolized variant that we have yet to confirm if it really is the case, but we really can't be to careful."

"So you want us to watch over Nick and James," Judy finished for him, earning her a stern glare from the chief for interrupting him. Nevertheless, he then nodded in agreement.

"I've already taken the liberty of filling out the roster for the two of you for the day," he informed. Bogo then slid over a pamphlet on his desk about a city event. Judy and Fangmeyer glanced over it.

_17th Annual First Species __Pride __& __Awareness Gathering at Glide Park_

"This event, as filed with its paperwork several months back, requests police presence just in case something is to happen. Don't worry, they _always_ asked for it, every year. Which, in its entire sixteen prior years, never did," Bogo explained. "And while this event normally falls under Precinct Three's territory, their chief sent out an email last minute to the rest of us at the ZPD explaining that he could use a favor if another precinct could fill in and spare them the mammal power. When it comes to Wilde and Wolford, their jobs for today will be quite literally to have a walk in the park. The two of you will have the job of making sure that it stays that way."

Waving a hoof over at Judy, Bogo then added, "Hopps, you want to help out with finding out what happened yesterday? You will have an entire shift today to take a laptop with you to the park and write the best report in your career. For that matter, when it comes to your individual reports, which I have yet to receive any from either one of the four of you-" this part he mentioned while staring at Fangmeyer. She shrank back from his gaze. "-Just get the bare minimum in. I know it's not normal procedure, but considering the ZIA and the Ocelotians are involved with this, I want you all to cooperate with each other and write a complete, fully comprehensive report on what happened underground. Fill in where any one of you missed a spot, cover each other's blindspots, but _I don't want any details missing_." He waited, glancing between Judy and Fangmeyer. "Am I understood?"

They both nodded.

"Good," Bogo concluded. "You have your assignments. Head down for the morning briefing if you want, but you know what you will be doing today." He slid over some papers to Fangmeyer. "The cropped medical report on Wilde and Wolford, so that you will be aware of what they are dealing with. And your assignment in writing, along with details on the event you'll be monitoring. Dismissed."

Leaving the office, Judy and Fangmeyer stared at one another as they pondered what they were just told.

"Well, that was something," Fangmeyer commented, breaking the silence as they began to head down to Clawhauser's desk. Flipping through the papers, she huffed at the assignment detail. "Should be a rather boring day," she commented, "park at a corner of the park, pull out a laptop and get that report done with." She then handed Judy the medical report. "This one's rather more interesting."

Judy scanned through the report. "We're in it," she commented, only to immediately realize that it was a rather silly statement. Of course she and Dahlia would also be in the report: They also had to do some tests as well, both in the evening and now this morning. Judy then took a closer look at exactly what that report was saying about them, and more specifically, several mentioned numbers. "We both had nighthowler in us." She stopped to ponder the implication of this realization. "But I didn't feel anything..."

"And neither did I," Fangmeyer noted as well. "Well, unless you want to spend the next decade rushing through medical school in order to solve this mystery, leave it to the experts. Besides," she motioned at the door in front of them. "We're here."

Judy glanced up, and sure enough, it was the familiar door to the bullpen. Following Dahlia inside, the place was already packed with the usual noise of officers. Though, as she walked over to her usual seat in the front of the room, she did notice that the normal greetings she would receive were now accompanied by a look of concern. Nick and James, for that matter, were not in the room yet. Taking her seat, she felt a large shadow loom over her. Her eyes traveled upward to settle upon McHorn.

"Heard you got into a scuffle with some nighthowlers yesterday. If you need some extra muscle, just let me know," he offered, "wouldn't mind sending someone messing with that stuff off to the hospital with a broken limb or two before a transfer to jail." He then noticed Judy's horrified expression. "Only hypothetically of course," he added, "here in the ZPD, we strive to maintain our utmost professionalism and do not tolerate any abuse of power." He then grinned back at Judy. "But seriously, if you feel like you will need one of us larger officers, no one in here is going to decline the offer."

She smiled back, grateful for the sign of support, especially from someone normally stoic and quiet like McHorn. "Thanks! I'll keep that in mind as soon as I figure out who's behind it all."

"Wouldn't be the first time," McHorn said with a chuckle of his own.

The room around them suddenly turned silent as everyone stopped talking at the same time. Since it wasn't in response to Higgins entering the room, Judy and McHorn glanced back at door they came in from.

Nick and James stood there, blinking at the effect they had just by their mere presence.

Wolford was the one to break the silence. "What are you all looking at?" he playfully growled out at all of the officers in the room, placing his paws on Nick's shoulders and nudging him further into the room. "Get back to work!"

Nick simply grinned and waved half-heatedly. "Yeah, you heard him!"

The room returned to its usual noise level as the officers returned their attention to their previous conversations, leaving Nick and Wolford alone.

Judy waited for her partner to cross the room and sit next to her in his own usual seat. She eyed him with concern. Nick was famously the loud and boisterous joker in the precinct. And while Wolford was known to enjoy the good prank and joke as well, he couldn't compete with Nick's antics. So for their attitudes to be so completely reversed from the usual was a sign enough that something was not right with the him.

"Morning, Nick," she greeted as he sat down next to her with a heavy sigh of relief. "How are you feeling?"

"'Bout the same as last night," he complained, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Which means lousy. Can't believe Buffalo Butt expects me to work today."

Judy scanned over Nick, feeling both relieved at that he was, for the most part, himself. But the other part of her couldn't help but be worried at how worn out and tired he looked, despite the more than usual night's rest he just had. That being said, she did have good news for him. "Don't worry about that Nick," she reassured her partner, "Dahlia and I just spoke to Bogo. You won't have to worry about much." Remembering that she still had the pamphlet for the gathering they weer going to be at, she slid it over in front of Nick. "A day of fresh air and not much else," she reassured him.

Nick simply glanced at the paper before sliding it back to Judy. "Great," he mumbled, "just what I need. The public laughing at the dumb police fox doped up on drugs. I can already imagine the headlines."

Judy's ears fell at his sarcastic remark. "Nick, you'll feel better afterwards. Bogo reassured us this morning from a report Doctor Honey gave him. All you need is to move a bit and you'll feel better!"

Nick groaned, glaring at Judy. "That's what they told me last night night!" he retorted, "Carrots, let me be miserable for now, okay? I feel like crap, so let me at least have the luxury of acting like it." He glared up at McHorn. "You too, big guy. Let me live my stereotype for once."

Another mammal sat down on the empty seat opposite of Nick, causing him to turn and look with an annoyed sigh. "Of all the empty seats, you just had to pick the one-" his eyes met Trigger's own wide, bloodshot ones. Nick's angry face instantly changed to one of confusion. "-The hell is wrong with you? You look like sh-"

"N-nothing, it's nothing." Trigger stammered quickly, interrupting Nick. He quickly looked away, briefly locking gazes with Judy behind Nick's back, but then quickly looked away from her as well.

Still confused, Nick glanced at Trigger, than at Judy. She grinned slightly and shrugged, telling him silently that she 'didn't know' what was up with the pilot this morning and played up on being just as clueless as he was. Another sign pointing towards how off Nick was today, he accepted her answer with a simple grunt before deciding to rest his head on his paws and wait out the rest of the time until Bogo will arrive for the briefing.

Judy reached out and gave his shoulder a slight shake. "Nick, you don't want to be like this when Bogo arrives. Come on now, lift your head up..." Nick instead groaned and actively resisted her efforts to tilt his head back up. So she started to prepare to force him to behave when the side door opened. The cavalry has arrived.

"Atten-hut!"

This time though, Bogo was right behind Higgins and already yelling at everyone to stop pounding on the tables and sit down immediately. "Shut it down, everyone! QUIET NOW!" There was a hint of seriousness in his tone which contrasted to his usual displeasure at everything, so no one dared to defy him and quieted down as told. Even Nick didn't have a snarky response at the ready, though that could be due to him being out of it rather more so than listening to Bogo for once.

Bogo glared across the room. "Last minute changes on top of last minute changes mean that I am already late to my next meeting. Now I have the ZIA _and_ the Ocelotians breathing down my back thanks to yesterday! So if you don't hear your name, it's because your assignment is the same as yesterday's."

He scanned the room, frowning when he found Nick dozing off. "Wilde, now's not the time for this," he said sternly, but lacking the expected anger he normally has when catching an officer sleeping in during the morning brief. However, when Nick didn't react, Bogo's patience ran low. "_WILDE_!"

Nick snorted and jolted awake, head snapping up from the table. The other officers laughed, though their reaction was rather muted. The humor of the situation dampened by the knowledge that he was recovering from nighthowler poisoning, and that it was mainly down to luck that they themselves weren't in his place instead.

The room quickly returned to silence as Bogo continued to glare at everyone. "Good, now that everyone had their giggles-" he stopped as a sudden snort of laughter interrupted him. Identifying the culprit, Bogo leaned closer over his pedestal. "Wolford! You especially of all mammals! Quiet down!"

Wolford bit his lower lip to stop from laughing again, but the fear of furthering Bogo's wrath was also more than enough to get him to calm down. "Sorry sir," he replied back much more soberly, then sitting up straighter. "Actually sir, about Wilde and I, um, is it even safe for us to be working today? I can catch up on paperwork at home, and Wilde, well," he waved a paw in Nick's direction. "I mean, just look at him."

Judy struggled not to laugh as Nick put on his most helpless, cutest expression he could muster in their boss' direction.

It didn't work. Bogo grumbled and shook his head, completely ignoring Nick's expression. "I've already spoken to Hopps and Fangmeyer this morning about that. Yours and Wilde's orders for today are to get better, and they will make sure you will be doing just that. Understood?"

Nick and James both nodded.

"Good." Returning his attention to his notes, Bogo scanned them briefly then stated to talk again. "Agent Savage is asking for two larger officers to help him out today-" he scanned the room. "Andersen, Snarlov. Congratulations, you get to be underground today." His gaze lingered towards Nick's and Wolford's directions. "And in light of what happened yesterday, you are under no circumstances to go underground without breathing protection. While that shouldn't be an issue, if someone from either the ZIA or, god forbid, some Ocelotian try to order you otherwise, you call me directly so that they will have to deal with me instead. Same goes for the two of you, Count and Trigger. You'll also be working down below today."

From where he sat next to Wolford and Fangmeyer, Count shrugged. "Whatever you say. Makes no difference to me."

Bogo grunted and shifted his attention to the other pilot. "I didn't hear you, Trigger. Are you even paying any attention to-" his suspicions were confirmed when Bogo found himself looking at Trigger, whose attention was once again diverted back to his picture. "Well this should be good..."

Judy leaned around Nick to see, a feeling of dread coming over her when she saw what was going on. Even as Bogo circled around the podium and walked over, she wasn't able to get herself to try and warn him of the looming danger.

Stopping next to their table, Bogo reached over and swiftly snatched the picture from Trigger's paw. His angry expression instantly softened when he glanced at it. "So that's what Savage's message was about," he muttered, returning his gaze back down to Trigger. "Staring at this all day won't make you feel any better," Bogo said as he handed the picture back.

His paw trembling, Trigger took the picture and slid it into the safety of a pocket. "I-I know, sir," he replied back, his voice unsteady.

"Try to concentrate on your work today," Bogo continued, returning back to behind the podium. "Keep your mind from wandering. Now as I told the others, you will be-"

"I know, I heard," Trigger interrupted. "Uh, sorry, sir."

Grunting again, Bogo looked back down at his notes. "Oh, and Trigger, try not to wander around the station all night again," he said, almost as an afterthought. "You were starting to make the night chief nervous."

Trigger shifted nervously in his chair.

"And finally, Delgato," Bogo announced, "you won't have to do parking duty today. Rejoin your partner, and next time, _pay attention_." The muffled laughter from some of the officers in the room meant that they at least knew what he was talking about.

"Everyone else, same as yesterday," Bogo concluded. "Dismissed!"


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Midnight Blues**

"-Judy?"

The bunny let out an annoyed groan, trying to ignore the voice that so suddenly had interrupted her sleep. Wait… How can someone be trying to wake her up if she was in her dingy little apartment?

"J-Judy, please wake up. I need to talk to you."

Purple eyes shot open, trying to peer through the darkness. It was also then that her mind turned on enough for her to recognize the voice as belonging to a certain familiar coyote. "Trigger? What?" Rubbing her eyes, Judy sat up as she started to remember where she was.

Oh, right, still at the station, not her apartment. Having stayed with Nick and talked with him late into the evening while he was busy receiving his latest round of Nighthowler medication, she vaguely recalled being too tired and lazy to search for her own place to sleep, and simply improvised. She sat up from where she had slept on a large chair, having dragged over one of the large-mammal sized ones over to Nick's bed, and she must have fallen asleep on it some time ago, still in her work clothes. Speaking of the fox: Turning her head, she found Nick next to her, still fast asleep, his open muzzle and tongue faintly illuminated by the machine next to his head, quietly monitoring his vital signs. On the other side from him was a privacy curtain, but she knew that Wolford was to be found on the next bed over, undoubtedly also asleep.

"Judy? Please-"

Groaning again, Judy turned back to the source of the voice. Trigger was standing next to her, shuffling his feet nervously and rubbing his arms. "Okay, okay, what?" She rubbed her eyes again, annoyed how this was reminding her _way_ too much of when she still lived back in Bunnyburrow, with all her siblings, and the inevitable wake-up-from-a-younger-sister-who-had-a-bad-night which that entailed. A feeling that Judy didn't miss at all in her current apartment.

"Can we go somewhere? Alone?"

Judy slid herself back so that she could support herself on the chair's backrest. "Trigger," she mumbled with barely suppressed annoyance, "you wake me up I don't know how early, and you can't even tell me plainly what you want?" His whimper of a reply was ignored by her, but she still raised a paw to stop him from talking further. "Just give me a moment, okay?" She took a few deep breaths, letting the cool room air fill her several times to help her in waking up enough to where she felt confident enough to walk around without bumping into anything. Sliding off the chair, she stood next to Trigger, trying to get a better look at him despite the darkness. "Fine, let's go somewhere private," she grumbled and followed him as he wordlessly turned and walked out of the room and let her into a nearby storage closet.

With a flick of a switch a single light bulb overhead crackled to a dim life. He closed the door and cleared some space at a small table, pulling for her a small chair before sitting down on one himself.

Taking the offered seat, Judy watched Trigger, waiting for him to make the first move. When he didn't, she decided to be the one to start. "So, you brought me here because..?"

Trigger's ears folded back from her sarcastic tone. "I… I just found this room on the way over. It's small, and um, filthy..." he mumbled back nervously. "But yeah… Um, I… I wanted to apologize. For yesterday evening? Just brushing you and Nick off like how I did?.. I know you wanted to help, so I want to say I'm sorry."

Feeling her pockets around, Judy pulled out her phone. "Apologize?" she repeated, turning the screen on and almost blinding herself from looking at the time on the screen. "Trigger, it's two in the morning!" she complained loudly, putting the phone back in her pocket. "Couldn't you have waited until regular morning?"

"-Couldn't sleep," came the ashamed reply.

Despite herself, Judy startle to chuckle quietly. "Sorry," she hurried to explain her behavior. "Just, I'm normally what you would consider a 'morning mammal'. Just ask Nick. But what it also means that when I want to sleep, I'm _out_. You kinda interrupted that." Calming herself down, she reached out and placed her paw on Trigger's, much like she would with Nick. "There's more to this, isn't there?" she asked gently. "You didn't really wake me up just to apologize? Didn't you?"

Looking ashamed, Trigger shook his head, pulling his paw away from under hers and towards one of his own pockets. Moments later, he pulled out the picture and one of the shoulder patches from before. "Didn't know who else to go to," he admitted, "don't know the other cops around here too well, especially those on night shift. And Count?" his voice hitched, his next words coming out in a dark, bitter tone. "Count wouldn't understand. Not this early in the morning. Nearly murdered me on the spot for waking him."

Judy shuffled closer to him. "No, Trigger, it's all right, I understand," she reassured him. "Here in the ZPD, we're here to help. Even at these odd hours of the night."

Trigger snorted. "Yeah, sure you do," he mumbled sarcastically.

For his comment, Judy punched him gently in the arm. Not playfully, as she would with Nick all the time, but not hard enough to hurt either. "Trigger!" she scolded, "don't be like that! I know some of the officers like to give you and Count the could shoulder, but we still want to help. They just don't know how to express it."

"Or perhaps they know not to get too close to killers," Trigger shot back, his hands forming into fists, dropping the picture in the process. "Can't bee seen fraternizing with someone with a body count, if you want to take a hint."

Judy stood, eyes narrowing, and pointed at herself. "Well even if they don't want to help you, as you insist, I hardly think you know better than me as to what _I _want to do! _I _know that I want to help!" Her voice lowered as she remembered that not too far away from two mammals who really needed their sleep. "And Nick? James and Dahlia? They wouldn't keep volunteering to watch out for you and Count if they considered it a waste of time." She reached over to the picture, and when Trigger didn't stop her, took it and brought it closer to her. "I know you're hurting," she said, now her voice barely above a whisper, "and you have every right to be, but please don't project that on others and to what they think." Looking down at the picture, she couldn't help but smile at how much nicer he looked there. "So what was her name then?" Judy asked quietly. "Never got a chance to find out last night."

"K-Kate," Trigger stuttered, choking on his own voice. "B-but in the air, sh-she was c-c-" he let out a growl of frustration at his inability to talk properly. "B-Brownie. Sh-she was c-c-" he cursed beneath his breath, and then gave up trying to complete the sentence.

Judy waited patiently for him as he clenched his fists tighter, taking in deep breaths in a vain attempt to wrestle control over himself. "Easy there, Trigger," she said gently, standing up in her chair so that she can place her pawn on his shoulders. "Long, steady breaths. We don't have to talk about her if you don't want to."

Trigger shook his head, his breathing slowly coming to a more controlled tempo. "N-no, I want to," he said, "just… might take me a c-couple of tries." Reaching over his shoulder, he took the picture back from Judy, but still help it close to her so that she can still see it. Taking a few more deep breaths, he started to tell her the story.

"W-we met at fighter pilot school," Trigger said, pointing at the plane in the background with his free paw. "That's one of the trainers there. At first, we didn't actually get along too well. We… we were always competing with one another. Argued together even more, so we tried to avoid one another. But, being the only coyotes in the entire training group? Smallest mammals there on top of that..." He let out a snort, shaking his head again. "I nearly failed several times just for my size along. I still have no idea how she made it through." Turning his head, Trigger looked at Judy with a small grin. "You with all of your stories of how you had to fight to get into the ZPD? When it comes to flying, it's a lot simpler." he pointed at the plane again. "Because of what they are designed to do and how much they cost, aircraft only come in one size. If you can't fit after adjusting the seat as much as it can, you don't fly. Simple as that."

Trigger then brought the attention back to the picture. By now, his speaking was almost back to normal, and talking came naturally to him again. "So about Brownie and I… Because we were the only two coyotes in the fighter school, and because I am a guy and she's well, a girl, yeah. You can only imagine the teasing we both received from everyone, wondering when we would hook up. At first, it only served to further separate us, just to spite them. But the teasing never stopped, so one day we agreed to pretend to at least hang out just to shut them up once and for all." By this point, Trigger was wearing a blissful smile as he recalled whatever had happened back then. "But then… we just kinda clicked together. One thing let to another… and well, you know how it goes. Guess everyone at fighter school were right all along-"

He then brought the picture back closer to himself, running a finger along its smooth surface, tracing Brownie's outline. "-Then again, we always did think that it was only going to be a temporary fling," he continued with his story, "we both figured that as soon as we got out of fighter school and into a real squadron, that we won't be able to see each other anymore. So I guess… I guess we let ourselves let our guard down in the name of some harmless fun." Trigger paused again, staring at the picture in silence.

Again, Judy waited patiently for him to continue on with his story, not minding the odd moments when neither of them said anything. Instead, she let her mind wander while she waited for him to find his voice again.

"Sure enough, we were assigned different squads," Trigger suddenly said, almost catching Judy off guard. "But we didn't expect for the two squadrons to be housed at the same airbase. So we got to see each other more, and… we got closer. I certainly didn't mind. I'm sure she didn't mind either. In fact, I'm certain that when the squad leaders caught on to the two of us, they made sure to have us fly up at the same time, to encourage a type of competition between us." By now, his smile from before had vanished and was replaced in a cold expression of anger.

Trigger let out another growl, dropping the picture so that he won't damage it as he formed fists again from his anger. "Then the stupid war started," he explained, his voice dropping into a low pitch, seething with venom and disdain. "And we went up together even then. But it wasn't like we had a choice. The whole air force was mobilized. And then… we went on the offensive, paving way for ground forces. Hope was to end the war quickly..." Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Judy. "Three guesses how that went. First two don't count."

Despite what would normally be considered a joke, he instead let out another growl, his fists tightening even further. "It was an ambush," he muttered simply. "We were lured into a drone kill-zone. Our squadrons were tasked with buying time for the others to try and retreat, but her plane got hit early on. Flight Lead forced her to fly back, citing that her damaged plane was useless at helping anyone else out and she was only hurting us by staying in the AO. So with an escort, she flew out. That was when _he_ showed up."

Trigger's fists relaxed, but only to allow him to raise his paws up to his head and cover his watering eyes. "Sh-she knew she never had a chance," he whimpered, "th-the escort was shot down first. Then _he_\- he just toyed with her! Her, in her damaged plane? All she was able to do was to try and run!.. She was scared out of her mind, an- and we were too far away! And all h-he wanted was his p-perfect shot!" He let out a despaired groan, pushing his paws hard into his skull. "H- her last words to me… _She __was __begg__ing__ me for help_! B-begging m-me-" His words failed him as his breathing verged into hyperventilation.

Judy stood and hugged his head, rubbing her paws over the back of his ears in a faint attempt to help him calm down. As before, she repeatedly talked to him in a gentle voice, trying to ground him into the current moment rather than whatever was tormenting him in the past.

"I- I miss her so much..." Trigger whimpered, causing Judy to increase her hug around his head.

To her relief, he didn't try to fight off her embrace like she feared he might try to do, and instead allowed her to help him as he descended further into his grieving. "It's okay, Trigger," she spoke softly to him, "it's okay to let it out. You don't have to keep hiding it." Sure enough, at her urging, whatever remained of his composure completely broke as Trigger buried his muzzle into her shoulder, the first of his wails escaping him suddenly and violently. Judy had to force herself not to try and escape the noise being emitted so close to her sensitive ears, but she was able to stay put and continue to do everything she can, letting him release all of his pent up emotion into her. "it's okay," she repeated softly, one of her paws stroking him between the ears like she knew Nick really liked. "Don't be afraid to let it out. Just let it go." Whether he heard her or not, but Trigger continued to cry into her shoulder, his own arms wrapping around her in a tight embrace as he tried to lessen his body's shaking from his uneven, ragged breathing in between sobs.

It took some time, but eventually his breathing softened into a more steady and softer pace as Trigger's grief started to wane. As though realizing where he was, he suddenly pulled back away from Judy, shaking his head away from her shoulder and grip. Though slightly hurt at his rather sudden action, she also knew that it was simply Trigger being himself and didn't allow his actions get to her.

"Damn, I'm such a mess," Trigger mumbled as he rubbed his eyes in a desperate attempt to dry them, looking completely ashamed at his behavior.

Judy let out a small if sad smile and placed a paw on his shoulder. "No, Trigger, you are not a mess," she reassured him. "You're just going through a hard time, that's all. It's natural. Nothing to be ashamed of."

"Yeah, sure," he grumbled back. "Can you imagine other's reactions if they find out about this? That Three Strikes himself was crying like a pup in front of a bunny cop?"

Judy let out a long sigh, staring at him directly in the eyes. "Trigger, you said it yourself," she explained gently, "there's a war on. No, I don't know what it's like there. No one in this station know what it's like over there. But don't you mistake our lack of direct experience with an inability to empathize and understand." She gave him a slight smile. "We're cops. Having to deal with mammals who did something stupid in response to their own troubles is a… less than glamorous part of our job. So at the very least, trust me when I say that I know what it can look like when someone holds their feelings inside of them too the point where they snap."

Trigger's gaze wavered, and he looked down at the floor, sniffling quietly. Silently, he reached across the table to where he had dropped the shoulder patch and slid it back over close to them. "They all look up to me," he muttered softly, clawed finger tracing the words running across the patch. "I'm the one who's supposed to be there for them when they had enough. Not the other way around." He reached for Brownie's picture, moving it over alongside the patch so that he can look at both at the same time. "I haven't even flown in a while now. They are still going up there, day after day, and I am down here. They… they would _kill_ to be here." His voice quivered slightly. "So why do I feel like this?"

"Even heroes need their own heroes," Judy answered calmly. "Like I said, there's no shame in letting go at a place like this. Because if not here and now, then when and where? Even Supermammal has his moments."

"Supermammal ain't real," Trigger countered defensively, gaze still wavering between the patch and picture. "Truth be told, this was the first time I really had the time to process all of this," he admitted. This did catch Judy off guard. "Brownie being k-killed. Everything after that..."

"What do you mean this was the first time?" Judy asked.

He sighed sorrowfully. "After she was shot down, I never had the time to really think about it," he explained. "Right after we landed, we were already preparing for the next mission. Only a week later, I flew up against the Urusians again." His gaze hardened into anger. "Which went even worse. That was when I decided to transfer to four-four-four. And especially once there, I never had the time to really think about what happened." His gaze softened again, the anger leaving his muzzle. "I guess I got so used to not thinking about it, that when Savage brought the picture, it caught me off guard."

Finally tearing his eyes away from the picture, he looked over at Judy. "Should you bump into him before I do tomorrow, err, later today, I want you to let him know..." he waved the picture in front of Judy slightly. "I'm really glad he brought it over. Never expected to see this again." As his eyes started to water over again, he glanced away from her, shame in his gaze. "Maybe… maybe you're right about me," he muttered, "about needling to let go and admit that I feel this way. But, I don't know… I still feel like it's not right for me to be like this. The 'Three Strikes' and all that..." He looked at Judy nervously. "You have no idea how much I will appreciate it if you won't mention what happened here."

"Sure, I can do that," Judy offered with a smile, "Not Nick, or James and Dahlia. Not even the chief. What happens in this room stays in this room."

Trigger returned her smile with a genuine one of his own. "Yeah," he said wistfully, "I think I'd like that." Then, to Judy's even greater surprise, he reached his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. "Nick's so lucky to have you as his partner," he muttered into her ear. The comment brought joy to Judy as she heard it.

"Don't worry," she replied, "he might never say it, but I know that Nick knows it." She felt Trigger's grip loosen and he separated away from her, looking somewhat embarrassed as he gathered the picture and shoulder patch, placing both back into his pocket. "You sure you'll be all right?" Judy asked, concern again slipping in her tone. "I don't mind staying in here for longer."

He shook his head. "You've got work tomorrow, and I'm sure Count and I'll be made to be useful as well," he explained hurriedly. "Uh, correction, today already. So all the more reason for me to let you go back to sleep."

As he started to stare at the floor again, Judy took a step towards him. "You sure you'll be all right?" she repeated again.

Trigger swallowed as he pulled out the picture again. "No," he answered truthfully, staring at it. "I won't even pretend that I will be able to fake it around you. But you've helped, Judy, really. There rest… I just need time to process it all. Also, I think I'll rather be alone now." He suddenly chuckled as he reached over to the wall, flipping the light switch off and engulfing the two of them in darkness. "If only the Urusians could see me now," he said, explaining his laughing. "How much will they pay to find out-? Three Strikes brought down by a simple picture..." His chuckling faded away as his mood sobered again.

Judy, still blinking in the darkness, felt his paws grab her by her shoulders and gently push her out of the room. Letting Trigger guide her, they left the room and out to the dimly lit corridor where she could at least see well enough again to know where to go.

"Good night, Judy."

Turning around to return the gesture, Judy froze when she found herself watching him slowly walk off in the other direction, tail limp and ears flat over his head. "Good night… Trigger." A large part of her wanted to run over and embrace him again, but Judy wanted to respect his wishes, and let him walk off. With a heavy sigh, she turned and walked back to the chair next to Nick's bed. Her fox was still fast asleep, the machines next to him quietly still beeping away with his vitals. As she watched him, Judy felt her fatigue return to her quickly, hitting her like a brick wall and reminding her that she will only have a couple of precious hours before she would need to wake up again proper.

Deciding that she was too lazy to walk about the station in search of a change of clothes, she grabbed a spare towel from next to Nick's bed, and using it as a blanked, curled up back on the chair just as before. "Good night to you too, Nick," she mumbled sleepily, closing her eyes, "if you can hear me."

Within moments, she was fast asleep.

"-Judy? Judy, time to wake up."

Groaning again, the towel slid off her as Judy slid upwards, blinking at the now much brighter room. "Huh, wha-?" Muffled laughter from close to her and overhead caused Judy to look up at Fangmeyer.

The tiger officer was holding her arm over her mouth, but her shaking shoulders betrayed laughter. "Wake up, sleepy bunny," she managed to say again. "Chief wants to see us in his office before the morning brief at the bullpen." She tilted her head at Judy. "You're really out of it, aren't you?" she asked, "considering how Nick always complains about you being the morning bundle of energy?"

Taking her phone out, Judy glanced at the time. Less than an hour before the morning brief. Which, combined with the now morning meeting with Bogo as well, meant that she didn't have a lot of time at all. "Yeah, can say that I'm out of it," Judy agreed. "Was a… interesting night." She glanced to her side in Nick's direction. The privacy curtain was partially pulled back, allowing her to see her very groggy partner being inspected by Doctor Honey. He noticed Judy watching him.

"Morning, Fluff," Nick greeted, immediately breaking out into a long yawn. "How are you on this absolutely fine morning? I-" he yelped as Honey poked him a bit too hard at a sensitive spot. "Doc! Watch it!" he complained, rubbing his side. "How long is this going to take, anyways?"

"Longer than it's supposed to if you keep this up," Honey replied without stopping her examination. "Now sit still and let me work."

Nick glanced back at Judy, eyes wide and ears folded flat in a 'puppy dog' expression. '_Save me!_' he mouthed, causing her to break out into giggles.

Then just as suddenly, Judy's view of Nick was blocked off when she found herself staring at Honey's nurse assistant. Her mind scrambled to remember his name, but came up blank.

"Morning, officer Hopps!" the nurse greeted. "I know your chief wants to have a chat with you really soon, so I'll make my examination quick." Sure enough, he lead Judy through some simple tests and checks, and within a matter of a couple of minutes, was done. "So if you're not feeling anything from last night's medications, there's no reason why you aren't fit for work today," he concluded. "Officer Hopps, you passed with a clean bill of health."

Fangmeyer nodded in satisfaction at Judy. "Good, you're all clean," she confirmed, "now let's get up to Bogo's office before he gets mad at us." She held up a warm paper bowl of hot cereal for Judy. "As an added bonus, I got you some breakfast, courtesy Precinct One's pantry. She waited as Judy got up and out of the chair she was sleeping on, yawning loudly again and using her paws to try and smooth out some of the wrinkles in her clothes. "That's one way to save time on changing," Fangmeyer said with a grin, handing over the bowl.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep in it, it just happened!" Judy protested, but gratefully took the breakfast and started munching it down quickly. Quickly turning around, she waved at Nick. "Fangmeyer and I got to go up to Bogo's. Later, Nick!"

Nick simply waved her off. "Don't leave me for too long, Carrots! Don't want my body to start rotting away." He was about to say something more, only to be interrupted by Doctor Honey fussing at him again to pay attention to her tests.

Together, Judy and Fangmeyer walked down the precinct's corridors. Quickly consuming what was left of her bowl, Judy tossed it into a nearby bin. "So how's James?" she asked. While she got to see Nick both last night and a bit this morning, she only vaguely remembered seeing Wolford asleep on the bed and that was it.

"Doing remarkable well," Fangmeyer answered, relief in her voice. "Didn't take much to wake him up this morning, and he didn't complain of any bad feelings. Did fall asleep all over again the moment Honey let him though." She grinned down at Judy. "I did hear that Nick even managed to walk around lat night. Can't believe I missed it."

Judy shrugged. "There wasn't much to see. He was still clearly under some Nighthowler influence, and otherwise was basically a fox zombie."

The two of them talked a bit more about random things before they arrived at the door to Bogo's office. Fangmeyer knocked politely, and they were called in barely a moment later.

"Officers Fangmeyer, Hopps, good. Have a seat." While Bogo lacked his usual barely-suppressed anger, he still didn't waste any words either. As soon as the two officers sat down in front of his desk, he got right to the point. "Doctor Honey sent me a preliminary report on Wilde and Wolford just now, probably while the two of you were walking over here," he explained. "The good news: they are both doing fine and should largely be back to their own behavior." He snorted. "Though with Wilde, I'm not sure if that's a good thing. I will miss being able to dart him guilt free."

Despite herself, Judy couldn't help but grin at his comment. As much as she enjoyed working with Nick, she also knew very well that the precinct's famous back and forth between Bogo and Nick, while great to watch, did sometimes cross the line when Bogo wouldn't be in the mood for Nick's commentary.

Pretending not to notice her grin, Bogo continued. "And the reports on the two of you also don't have anything to worry about, so, unfortunately, I will expect both of you to be working today."

Judy's ears perked up. It was something that she thought of on the way over to his office, and now was the perfect time to bring it up. "Yes, about that sir," she hurriedly said before he went off on something else, "sir, I want to volunteer."

Bogo stared back at her. "Volunteer for what, officer Hopps?"

"-Uh," Judy was caught off guard by this question. "Why, to help with the investigation. As to why Nick and James both went savage underground yesterday." She smiled hopefully at Bogo. "That's what I want to volunteer for."

Leaning back in his seat, Bogo let out a long sigh, a hint of frustration in it. "That won't be happening Hopps," he informed her simply. Ignoring her open-mouthed look of shock, he continued to explain. "While I am known for encouraging my officers to volunteer for such tasks, provided they are all caught up with their previous work, in this specific case, you won't be able to do that for two simple reasons." He leaned forwards to look at Judy and Fangmeyer better. "The first and main reason is that, despite yesterday's incident involving not one but two of my officers, the ZPD will not be conducting an investigation into the matter. _Hopps_!" He paused in his explanation to shout Judy's name before she can interrupt him with her own protest, her ears dropping behind her back in reaction. Even Fangmeyer looked shock and ready to argue, but knew better than to open her mouth about it.

"The reason why there won't be an investigation," Bogo continued with a firm tone, informing the two officers that they are not to argue with him until he will be finished, "is because the matter has been kicked out of our jurisdiction. Both the ZIA, and unfortunately, even the Ocelotians want in on it thanks to that drone you found in there. And I'm afraid that in their eyes, having a bunch of gung-ho city cops running around and ruining things for them is out of the question, so as of this morning, we're being forced to keep our distance unless specified otherwise." As he spoke, Bogo glared at Judy and Fangmeyer, though in this case, his anger was clearly also not directed at either of them.

"And the second reason," Bogo said, his tone relaxing into a slightly gentler one, "is that I need the two of you for an unusual but important job today. Maybe even for more than today."

Judy's ears perked up again with interest, though not to their fullest extent as when something really grabs her attention. After all, she was on and off on 'unusual jobs', really, ever since Count and Trigger dropped in on Precinct One. Speaking of the pilots… "It's no about Count or Trigger?" Judy asked, her mind recalling what had happened just a few hours ago with Trigger. Had Bogo found out about it already somehow?

Bogo picked up a paper from his desk that he had lying ready. "No, not this time, Hopps. It's about Wilde and Wolford." Judy's ears perked up the rest of the way, and Fangmeyer leaned closer to Bogo's desk as well. Holding up the paper, not so that they can read it, but just so that the two officers can see what he was talking about, Bogo continued. "This is the medical report given to me by Doctor Honey on their status. Lots of jargon which I can't understand in here, unfortunately, and I doubt either of you can make any heads or tails out of it either. But more importantly, it has recommendations on actions to be done with them." Setting the paper back down on the desk, he glanced between Judy and Fangmeyer. "Long story short, both Wilde and Wolford could really use sunshine, fresh air, and preferably, some sort of gentle exercise. Chasing down preps is out of the question, but it's better for them to not spend their day in here writing reports. Or going home to sleep it off, for that matter. No matter how they might complain. However, since no one really knows yet too well how mammals react to Nighthowler medication yet, they will need someone to look after them, just in case the worst might happen and they will start to regress. Especially with what Doctor Honey theorizes is some sort of aerosolized variant that we have yet to confirm if it really is the case, but we really can't be to careful."

"So you want us to watch over Nick and James," Judy finished for him, earning her a stern glare from the chief for interrupting him. Nevertheless, he then nodded in agreement.

"I've already taken the liberty of filling out the roster for the two of you for the day," he informed. Bogo then slid over a pamphlet on his desk about a city event. Judy and Fangmeyer glanced over it.

_17th Annual First Species __Pride __& __Awareness Gathering at Glide Park_

"This event, as filed with its paperwork several months back, requests police presence just in case something is to happen. Don't worry, they _always_ asked for it, every year. Which, in its entire sixteen prior years, never did," Bogo explained. "And while this event normally falls under Precinct Three's territory, their chief sent out an email last minute to the rest of us at the ZPD explaining that he could use a favor if another precinct could fill in and spare them the mammal power. When it comes to Wilde and Wolford, their jobs for today will be quite literally to have a walk in the park. The two of you will have the job of making sure that it stays that way."

Waving a hoof over at Judy, Bogo then added, "Hopps, you want to help out with finding out what happened yesterday? You will have an entire shift today to take a laptop with you to the park and write the best report in your career. For that matter, when it comes to your individual reports, which I have yet to receive any from either one of the four of you-" this part he mentioned while staring at Fangmeyer. She shrank back from his gaze. "-Just get the bare minimum in. I know it's not normal procedure, but considering the ZIA and the Ocelotians are involved with this, I want you all to cooperate with each other and write a complete, fully comprehensive report on what happened underground. Fill in where any one of you missed a spot, cover each other's blindspots, but _I don't want any details missing_." He waited, glancing between Judy and Fangmeyer. "Am I understood?"

They both nodded.

"Good," Bogo concluded. "You have your assignments. Head down for the morning briefing if you want, but you know what you will be doing today." He slid over some papers to Fangmeyer. "The cropped medical report on Wilde and Wolford, so that you will be aware of what they are dealing with. And your assignment in writing, along with details on the event you'll be monitoring. Dismissed."

Leaving the office, Judy and Fangmeyer stared at one another as they pondered what they were just told.

"Well, that was something," Fangmeyer commented, breaking the silence as they began to head down to Clawhauser's desk. Flipping through the papers, she huffed at the assignment detail. "Should be a rather boring day," she commented, "park at a corner of the park, pull out a laptop and get that report done with." She then handed Judy the medical report. "This one's rather more interesting."

Judy scanned through the report. "We're in it," she commented, only to immediately realize that it was a rather silly statement. Of course she and Dahlia would also be in the report: They also had to do some tests as well, both in the evening and now this morning. Judy then took a closer look at exactly what that report was saying about them, and more specifically, several mentioned numbers. "We both had nighthowler in us." She stopped to ponder the implication of this realization. "But I didn't feel anything..."

"And neither did I," Fangmeyer noted as well. "Well, unless you want to spend the next decade rushing through medical school in order to solve this mystery, leave it to the experts. Besides," she motioned at the door in front of them. "We're here."

Judy glanced up, and sure enough, it was the familiar door to the bullpen. Following Dahlia inside, the place was already packed with the usual noise of officers. Though, as she walked over to her usual seat in the front of the room, she did notice that the normal greetings she would receive were now accompanied by a look of concern. Nick and James, for that matter, were not in the room yet. Taking her seat, she felt a large shadow loom over her. Her eyes traveled upward to settle upon McHorn.

"Heard you got into a scuffle with some nighthowlers yesterday. If you need some extra muscle, just let me know," he offered, "wouldn't mind sending someone messing with that stuff off to the hospital with a broken limb or two before a transfer to jail." He then noticed Judy's horrified expression. "Only hypothetically of course," he added, "here in the ZPD, we strive to maintain our utmost professionalism and do not tolerate any abuse of power." He then grinned back at Judy. "But seriously, if you feel like you will need one of us larger officers, no one in here is going to decline the offer."

She smiled back, grateful for the sign of support, especially from someone normally stoic and quiet like McHorn. "Thanks! I'll keep that in mind as soon as I figure out who's behind it all."

"Wouldn't be the first time," McHorn said with a chuckle of his own.

The room around them suddenly turned silent as everyone stopped talking at the same time. Since it wasn't in response to Higgins entering the room, Judy and McHorn glanced back at door they came in from.

Nick and James stood there, blinking at the effect they had just by their mere presence.

Wolford was the one to break the silence. "What are you all looking at?" he playfully growled out at all of the officers in the room, placing his paws on Nick's shoulders and nudging him further into the room. "Get back to work!"

Nick simply grinned and waved half-heatedly. "Yeah, you heard him!"

The room returned to its usual noise level as the officers returned their attention to their previous conversations, leaving Nick and Wolford alone.

Judy waited for her partner to cross the room and sit next to her in his own usual seat. She eyed him with concern. Nick was famously the loud and boisterous joker in the precinct. And while Wolford was known to enjoy the good prank and joke as well, he couldn't compete with Nick's antics. So for their attitudes to be so completely reversed from the usual was a sign enough that something was not right with the him.

"Morning, Nick," she greeted as he sat down next to her with a heavy sigh of relief. "How are you feeling?"

"'Bout the same as last night," he complained, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Which means lousy. Can't believe Buffalo Butt expects me to work today."

Judy scanned over Nick, feeling both relieved at that he was, for the most part, himself. But the other part of her couldn't help but be worried at how worn out and tired he looked, despite the more than usual night's rest he just had. That being said, she did have good news for him. "Don't worry about that Nick," she reassured her partner, "Dahlia and I just spoke to Bogo. You won't have to worry about much." Remembering that she still had the pamphlet for the gathering they weer going to be at, she slid it over in front of Nick. "A day of fresh air and not much else," she reassured him.

Nick simply glanced at the paper before sliding it back to Judy. "Great," he mumbled, "just what I need. The public laughing at the dumb police fox doped up on drugs. I can already imagine the headlines."

Judy's ears fell at his sarcastic remark. "Nick, you'll feel better afterwards. Bogo reassured us this morning from a report Doctor Honey gave him. All you need is to move a bit and you'll feel better!"

Nick groaned, glaring at Judy. "That's what they told me last night night!" he retorted, "Carrots, let me be miserable for now, okay? I feel like crap, so let me at least have the luxury of acting like it." He glared up at McHorn. "You too, big guy. Let me live my stereotype for once."

Another mammal sat down on the empty seat opposite of Nick, causing him to turn and look with an annoyed sigh. "Of all the empty seats, you just had to pick the one-" his eyes met Trigger's own wide, bloodshot ones. Nick's angry face instantly changed to one of confusion. "-The hell is wrong with you? You look like sh-"

"N-nothing, it's nothing." Trigger stammered quickly, interrupting Nick. He quickly looked away, briefly locking gazes with Judy behind Nick's back, but then quickly looked away from her as well.

Still confused, Nick glanced at Trigger, than at Judy. She grinned slightly and shrugged, telling him silently that she 'didn't know' what was up with the pilot this morning and played up on being just as clueless as he was. Another sign pointing towards how off Nick was today, he accepted her answer with a simple grunt before deciding to rest his head on his paws and wait out the rest of the time until Bogo will arrive for the briefing.

Judy reached out and gave his shoulder a slight shake. "Nick, you don't want to be like this when Bogo arrives. Come on now, lift your head up..." Nick instead groaned and actively resisted her efforts to tilt his head back up. So she started to prepare to force him to behave when the side door opened. The cavalry has arrived.

"Atten-hut!"

This time though, Bogo was right behind Higgins and already yelling at everyone to stop pounding on the tables and sit down immediately. "Shut it down, everyone! QUIET NOW!" There was a hint of seriousness in his tone which contrasted to his usual displeasure at everything, so no one dared to defy him and quieted down as told. Even Nick didn't have a snarky response at the ready, though that could be due to him being out of it rather more so than listening to Bogo for once.

Bogo glared across the room. "Last minute changes on top of last minute changes mean that I am already late to my next meeting. Now I have the ZIA _and_ the Ocelotians breathing down my back thanks to yesterday! So if you don't hear your name, it's because your assignment is the same as yesterday's."

He scanned the room, frowning when he found Nick dozing off. "Wilde, now's not the time for this," he said sternly, but lacking the expected anger he normally has when catching an officer sleeping in during the morning brief. However, when Nick didn't react, Bogo's patience ran low. "_WILDE_!"

Nick snorted and jolted awake, head snapping up from the table. The other officers laughed, though their reaction was rather muted. The humor of the situation dampened by the knowledge that he was recovering from nighthowler poisoning, and that it was mainly down to luck that they themselves weren't in his place instead.

The room quickly returned to silence as Bogo continued to glare at everyone. "Good, now that everyone had their giggles-" he stopped as a sudden snort of laughter interrupted him. Identifying the culprit, Bogo leaned closer over his pedestal. "Wolford! You especially of all mammals! Quiet down!"

Wolford bit his lower lip to stop from laughing again, but the fear of furthering Bogo's wrath was also more than enough to get him to calm down. "Sorry sir," he replied back much more soberly, then sitting up straighter. "Actually sir, about Wilde and I, um, is it even safe for us to be working today? I can catch up on paperwork at home, and Wilde, well," he waved a paw in Nick's direction. "I mean, just look at him."

Judy struggled not to laugh as Nick put on his most helpless, cutest expression he could muster in their boss' direction.

It didn't work. Bogo grumbled and shook his head, completely ignoring Nick's expression. "I've already spoken to Hopps and Fangmeyer this morning about that. Yours and Wilde's orders for today are to get better, and they will make sure you will be doing just that. Understood?"

Nick and James both nodded.

"Good." Returning his attention to his notes, Bogo scanned them briefly then stated to talk again. "Agent Savage is asking for two larger officers to help him out today-" he scanned the room. "Andersen, Snarlov. Congratulations, you get to be underground today." His gaze lingered towards Nick's and Wolford's directions. "And in light of what happened yesterday, you are under no circumstances to go underground without breathing protection. While that shouldn't be an issue, if someone from either the ZIA or, god forbid, some Ocelotian try to order you otherwise, you call me directly so that they will have to deal with me instead. Same goes for the two of you, Count and Trigger. You'll also be working down below today."

From where he sat next to Wolford and Fangmeyer, Count shrugged. "Whatever you say. Makes no difference to me."

Bogo grunted and shifted his attention to the other pilot. "I didn't hear you, Trigger. Are you even paying any attention to-" his suspicions were confirmed when Bogo found himself looking at Trigger, whose attention was once again diverted back to his picture. "Well this should be good..."

Judy leaned around Nick to see, a feeling of dread coming over her when she saw what was going on. Even as Bogo circled around the podium and walked over, she wasn't able to get herself to try and warn him of the looming danger.

Stopping next to their table, Bogo reached over and swiftly snatched the picture from Trigger's paw. His angry expression instantly softened when he glanced at it. "So that's what Savage's message was about," he muttered, returning his gaze back down to Trigger. "Staring at this all day won't make you feel any better," Bogo said as he handed the picture back.

His paw trembling, Trigger took the picture and slid it into the safety of a pocket. "I-I know, sir," he replied back, his voice unsteady.

"Try to concentrate on your work today," Bogo continued, returning back to behind the podium. "Keep your mind from wandering. Now as I told the others, you will be-"

"I know, I heard," Trigger interrupted. "Uh, sorry, sir."

Grunting again, Bogo looked back down at his notes. "Oh, and Trigger, try not to wander around the station all night again," he said, almost as an afterthought. "You were starting to make the night chief nervous."

Trigger shifted nervously in his chair.

"And finally, Delgato," Bogo announced, "you won't have to do parking duty today. Rejoin your partner, and next time, _pay attention_." The muffled laughter from some of the officers in the room meant that they at least knew what he was talking about.

"Everyone else, same as yesterday," Bogo concluded. "Dismissed!"


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: Side effects**

Judy double checked the map on her phone, then confirming what the screen was telling her with what she was seeing outside the windshield, she finished driving across the small bridge they were on and pulled over to the side of the road. "We've arrived, everyone!" she announced to the other occupants of the car. "James? Dahlia? Ready?"

From the back seats, she head Fangmeyer snort with laughter. "You sound like we're about to go on some great adventure, Hopps," she said, "remember that we are here to watch over some boring event. I don't see what's gotten you so excited over there."

Judy shrugged. "We're going to be interacting with the community in a positive manner!" she explained, "it's a far more important part of our jobs than just catching bad guys! Am I right or am I right?"

James chuckled. "With you around Hopps, no part of this job is boring." He let out a long yawn. "But first thing's first, let's find a large enough bench and get that report over with. Sound good?"

"No point in delaying the inevitable," Dahlia agreed. "This can easily take us several hours, and I would personally prefer to get it out of our way and in Bogo's inbox sooner rather than later."

"Then we are agreed," Judy confirmed as she unbuckled her seatbelt. "Nick? How are you holding up?" She glanced over to the passenger seat when her partner didn't answer. She let out a small smile of sympathy as she reached over to shake his shoulder. "Nick, we're here. Time to wake up, you promised!"

Nick's head was leaning against the window, eyes closed and tongue dangling out of the corner of his mouth as he snored away even as she started to shake him. His snores abruptly ended when she gave his shoulder a particularly hard shake, causing his head to lift away from the window and collide back with it with an audible _clang_. "Ow! Carrots! What gives?" Nick furiously rubbed the spot where his head hit the window, glaring at his partner. "You said you'll let me sleep until we arrive!" he complained.

Judy blinked at him. "And we _are_ here, Nick. I tried to be more gentle with you, but you wouldn't budge. Remember Bogo's orders after all – they are for your own well being, after all."

"Yeah, yeah," Nick grumbled as he unbuckled himself and slid out of the car. Closing the door behind him, he looked around him, surveying the area. Judy had found a rather unique place to stop the car: the road they drove in on, after crossing the small bridge, ran parallel to the grassy park, serving as one of its boundaries. Underneath the bridge, the ground dipped away to either another road or something else entirely, with the slanting ground marking another edge of the park. All in all, Just had parked their can right at one of the corners, so they can easily view the entire event from where they were.

In fact, further into the park, it looked like a large group of mammals were already busy setting up.

Nick's eyes then wandered up past the park and the buildings behind it, to the ones further away, and further up still to the pale blue sky. As much as he hated to admit that Judy might be right, but the warm day and sunny skies of Savanna Central on this day did feel really nice, especially compared to the underground caverns they were stuck in the previous day. Perhaps it was still the nighthowlers talking, but being able to relax and see the sky stirred something primal within him that Nick didn't even know he missed.

"Wilde? Nick, you all right there, buddy?" It was Wolford, walking into his field of view. "You completely dazed off there for a while."

Nick caught James' gaze, and nodded. "I'm fine. Just realized how good it feels to be outside, I guess," he commented, earning a smirk from the other officer.

"See? Looks like Doc Honey Badger might know a thing or two about her craft. Speaking of which..." Wolford help up a small insulated lunch box. "Breakfast is waiting for you for whenever you will want it."

Eyeing the box, Nick shook his head. "Not yet. Still not feeling up to it," he admitted. "How come you're all fine, anyways? Shouldn't you be even worse than I am?" he complained.

James grinned. "Beats me. Doc said the meds react differently to each mammal individually. Got lucky, I guess. Can't say that I am not enjoying you in this lousy mood of yours, Wilde. A lot more peace and quiet for the rest of us." Since Nick wasn't going to be eating his breakfast yet, Wolford opened the car door and placed the box inside away from direct sunlight. He did pull out a bottle of water from it, though. "But even if you aren't going to be eating yet, you still have to hydrate. And yes, even I will be making sure that you won't be skipping out on it."

"Whatever you say, mother," Nick retorted, but still accepted the bottle and even took a swig.

Judy's voice grabbed both of theirs attention. "Boys! If you're done there, we're all set up here!"

Glancing at one another, Nick and James headed over to where Judy and Dahlia were ready for them, occupying a bench meant for the largest of mammals, and with a laptop ready in front of them. Nick glared at the empty form waiting to be filled out. "And I had to wake up for _this_?" Especially knowing what Bogo wanted out them, completing the paperwork was going to take far longer than he felt he had the patience for.

"You know, I'm not even sure why I'm needed for this," Wolford commented casually, glancing between the screen and freedom in the form of the event at the park that they were supposed to be 'guarding'. "It's not like I wasn't either savage or passed out for more than half of this."

With a sigh, Fangmeyer stared up at the two of them. "And I am more than willing to make sure that you spend today the same way if you don't sit both of your tails down and help us complete this," she warned. The looks of nervousness she got out of Nick and James gave her a smirk of pride at how her tone was able to set them in their place. "So here's the deal: Complete the report with Hopps and I, and enjoy the rest of the day out here with us," she focused her attention on Wolford now. After all, he was _her_ partner, and really ought to know to behave better. Plus, he did spend most of the morning back in the precinct bragging that unlike Wilde, he was feeling absolutely fine. "Or, you can spend the same time muzzle first in the backseat of the car, tranquilizer dart sticking out of your a-"

"Okay! Okay!" Nick interrupted in a hurry. "We get it! No need to go there, okay?" He pretended to groan as Judy and Dahlia shared a fist bump with each other. "Besides, we don't want to scare off any of the public now, do we? In fact, here comes one right now." He wasn't even bluffing: while he was more than glad to use anyone as an excuse to move away from the direction this conversation veered off into, it really did look like one of the mammals from the event was walking right towards them.

"Good morning to you, officers!" she, some sort of deer variant, greeted. "Catching up on paperwork?"

"Sure are!" Judy confirmed, lifting one of her paws for a shake. Always the first one when it comes to interacting with the public. "How may we help you, miss-?"

"Foster. Arista Foster," the deer greeted back, shaking Judy's paw. "I am one of the organizers here with the First Species Gathering. It's just that um, I don't want to mean any insult to any of you, but I was hoping that Officer Jones and his partner would be here today. He's the one normally sent out here, and if anything became somewhat of a regular..."

Judy's mind raced at recognizing the name, but it still took her a few moments to remember that he was one of the Precinct Three officers. _Of course, it is their territory normally_. "Just us for now," she answered, "Officer Jones was unavailable this morning. Sorry about that."

"If he will have the time for it, I am sure he will be able to swing by even for a little," Fangmeyer added politely. "But for today, the four of us are assigned to help you out here, so if you need any help, just flag one of us down."

"Thank you," Foster said, shuffling nervously. "It's just that, Officer Jones, being bison, it really worked with what this event is about. Really fit the spirit, so he showed up for the past… four or five years. But I, really though, don't want to imply anything nor do I wish to make any of you feel unwelcome here..."

"I wouldn't worry about that," Judy reassured her. "We understand."

"Great!" Foster looked relieved that she didn't somehow tread upon some unspoken taboo. "Oh, and one last thing before I leave you all to do your work-" she reached into her purse and pulled out some fliers. "Feel free to join in the event if you want. No need to stay on the sidelines." Handing the fliers out, she gave them all a final quick wave. "Thank you for your time, officers! See you around!"

Turning quickly around, she left, heading back to the rest of the event.

"Okay, with that distraction over with," Dahlia grabbed the fliers from the others and placed them underneath the laptop. "I am not going to be that boring superior officer who says that you will not be allowed to have any fun today." She glanced at Nick and James. "Especially the two you: walking around is supposed to be especially good for you today, so might as well make it interesting. But first-" she motioned at the laptop. "We have a report to get to Bogo. Let's get the worst out the way first, then we can enjoy the rest of our shift afterwards." Rotating the laptop, she placed in a way that allowed her to type but also giving everyone room to sit around it and see the screen with relatively little comfort.

Even with the four of them working together in order to get it done, there was no denying that writing the report to the level of detail that was deemed to be sufficient was long, tedious, and especially boring. For several hours, they labored away at chipping away at the report. To ward off complete boredom, at certain intervals they would pause typing and take a walk around the perimeter of the park, checking up on the event they were supposed to look after to make sure that everything was going all right.

So far, it was.

Nick, for his part, could complete his paperwork to a more than adequate standard when he put his mind to it – Bogo made sure of that. Unfortunately, today was especially one of those days when his mind was everywhere and anywhere _but_ working on paperwork. And so, he often found himself drifting mentally and zoning out.

The noises from the event a short walk's away were not helping him in remaining distraction-free. He stared across the field separating them, finding himself hoping that some nut-job would show up and start making a scene. Not necessarily hurt anyone, but to make a lot of noise. To give them an excuse to get up and have something more exciting to do that was not-

"Nick! _Focus_!" Judy interrupted his thoughts with a small jab into his sides. "We need your input for this part."

"Huh?" Blinking, Nick stared at the screen, his mood souring when he saw that they were busy writing about the section just before he went fully savage behind the driver's wheel. "Oh, right, this part..." Re-reading the part again, he shrugged. "Looks fine to me. You got it down as I remember it."

Judy sighed. "_Nick_, this is not the time for you to act like you don't care," she scolded, but there was a hint of concern there as well. "We know what happened, but we don't have your perspective. And unless you won't tell us, we won't know what to write, we won't be able to add it in for you." She reached over to the laptop and shifted it closer to him. "You don't even have to tell us. Just type down what went on inside your head."

"Oh, well, about that," Nick glanced at Fangmeyer. "I mean, do I really need to? Like, won't that be more fitting for a medical report for that? This is a police report, we need to tell what happened, not talk about our feelings."

Dahlia stared back, urging him on with her gaze. "Nick, with Nighthowlers, often everything that happened is inside someone's head, you know that. Bogo specifically asked us to get you and James not to hide anything. He won't hold anything against you either, if you admit to something that you know you did that you normally wouldn't."

So Nick looked at Wolford for help. But James only shook his head. "Don't look at me, I was out of it by then," he explained. "Nick, we understand-" he motioned at himself, "especially me. I'm in the same boat as you are on this. And we're not going to force you to say anything you don't want to. But it's nighthowlers, Nick. You know what they can do, and unfortunately-" he hesitated, "well, fortunately perhaps, but there's just not a lot of data when it comes to what it's like to be under their influence. Every little bit helps."

With a groan, Nick nodded. "Well, it's not really that," he admitted, "just that, well, like this part, for example," he pointed at a section of text, and started reading it aloud. "'Officer Wilde nearly drove into the vehicle in front of him in traffic, only narrowly avoiding a collision by swerving to the side and into a parking meter'." He let out an embarrassed grin. "How do I put it? It's completely wrong..." Taking the laptop, he started to type as he explained. "I didn't 'miss' the car in front." He chuckled nervously. "Deliberately trying to ram it is the more correct description of what I was doing."

"Nick, you didn't!" Next to him, Judy shuffled closer to him.

"Sorry Carrots, but I remember it, well, mostly. And not that I want to," Nick explained. He stopped typing, staring at the screen. "I did realize what I was trying to do as the last second though, hence the swerve. But well, everything then was making me just _absolutely mad_, I can't really describe it. Wolf, care to elaborate?"

"Everything making you angry sounds about right as to what I felt," Wolford confirmed. But I didn't have much time to realize what was happening until I got to the point that I don't remember anything past it. It's like… severe anger that gets fuzzier and fuzzier, only for the next thing you know, you wake up on a hospital bed." Wolford frowned. "Okay, very obvious obvious, but now that I actually felt it first hand, let me tell you: Going savage _s__u-__u-__u__cks_."

Judy and Dahlia grinned at how he stretched out the last word to emphasis it even more.

"And so does recovering from it," Nick grumbled, still staring at the screen, making the occasional correction or adjustment. "Actually..." With a sigh, he reached out to delete everything he added, but stopped before he could carry it out. "I don't mind Bogo seeing this, but since this specifically is going to be sent to both the ZIA and the Ocelotians, can we leave this out? Just mentioning that I was behind the wheel when I went savage is already making me rather nervous." He glanced down at feeling Judy reach for his paw, and he smiled back at her gesture.

"Sure, Wilde, we can do that," Fangmeyer reassured him, and swiveling the computer back to herself, proceeded to do just that. "I'm just going to leave the minimal needed to keep the report making sense, is that all right?"

Nick nodded, grinning nervously. "Yeah, if you don't mind."

"Actually, in that case, same for me," Wolford added hastily, tugging at his shirt collar.

Fangmeyer glanced at her partner, pausing in her editing. "Really James, now you too? Why the sudden change of mind?" When he struggled to come up with a proper excuse, she shook her head to show that she didn't care for the reason. "Don't worry, I get it. I for one, know that I would also be nervous about having something like that be written down about me. Just would have been nice to get this request and hour or two ago."

"Sorry," James mumbled, "didn't think about it too much until now. Got carried away by the moment, I guess. But hey, it's not like that time was wasted! I'm not asking you to delete all of that, just move it out of this specific report."

"Don't worry, James, I got it the first time you said it," Fangmeyer replied with a huff. Scanning through the text and making the necessary adjustments, she got to a point where she felt good about the progress they made. Taking a quick look at the clock on the screen, she saved their progress and closed the lid down. "We will still need to go all over it again, and that can take another additional hour at least," she announced, "why don't we take a lunch break and relax for a bit? Besides, laptop can use a charging before we use it again."

Returning to the car, Dahlia quickly plugged in the laptop to charge, before pulling out the cooler with their lunches.

Nick especially glared at his with a look of pure hate that Judy swore she never knew him capable of. "Not hungry?" she asked.

"Not exactly," Nick answered. "I'm sure I'll be starving soon enough, but I am still feeling like whatever I put in will only go back out the same way, so if you don't mind..." He rummaged through his lunch, pulling out another bottle of water and a small bottle of pills. Spilling a few into his paw, he swallowed the lot and swigged it all down with a large gulp of the water, grimacing at the taste. "Just one more time, then I'm done!" he muttered to himself in a hopeful tone. From the corner of his eye, he saw Wolford taking his own medication, but downing it with some bites of a sandwich.

Judy watched her partner carefully, noting how he looked at them with poorly hidden jealousy as they ate their food. She almost thought to offer him a portion of her meal, but then remembered that it wasn't like he was lacking in his own lunch. "Hey, Nick, while we eat," she offered, "I'm sure you won't mind catching a quick nap in the car-"

"Great idea! On it, Fluff!" Nick said cheerfully before she could even finish her sentence. Moving far quicker than he had all day, Nick just about bounced to the car, sliding into the driver's seat and reclining it all the way back it could, lowering the window half open for airflow.

Finishing up his own lunch faster than the others, Wolford stood up and allowed himself the small luxury of stretching fully after the several hours sitting hunched over a computer screen. He groaned with relief as he felt his various joints move back into their proper places. "If neither of you mind, I think I'll go and take another lap around the park," he announced. "And take my time while at it. Unless you want me to stay so that we can finish the report with you, that is."

"Is your radio with you?" Fangmeyer asked.

"Of course," he scoffed back. "Who do you think I am?"

"Just checking. Hopps? Need him around for anything?"

Judy glanced at the car, and more specifically, at the door that Nick was behind. "Go for it, James. Will give us a good excuse to get Nick out and about again when we wake him up."

Wolford nodded. "Okay then. I'll be close." And just like that, he walked off, leaving the tiger and bunny alone together.

"You know," Dahlia then told to Judy, "we really should be having Wilde be walking as well. Doctor's recommendations and everything."

Judy nodded, but didn't move to go and wake Nick up. "He really should, but at the same time, it's _Nick_. If he's not eating, then he's really feeling out of it. Most of the time, doctors only tell you to go and walk around once your up to it, not before." She looked up to see Fangmeyer smirking down at her. "What?"

"The two of you are acting like partners who were paired for much longer than you actually were," Dahlia answered.

"Yeah, so what? Nick's my best friend" Judy countered. "What about you and James?"

"Hopps, I'm married," Dahlia countered, blinking at the other officer. She lifted her paw up to show Judy the ring on it. "Speaking of which, I do hope Bogo allows us to actually go home today. But as for James… Yes, I do consider him as a very good friend."

"Your _best_ friend?"

"_Well_, if you don't count my husband? Uh..." Fangmeyer pondered the question for a moment with a wistful smile. "Yeah, I suppose Jame's my _best_ friend in that case."

"So then it's not that different than Nick and I," Judy finished with a smug grin, returning her attention back to the report. "Okay, okay, enough chatter. Let's get this thing over with."

"You always in a rush to get back into the boring work like this, Hopps?"

Since they needed to go through the entire thing anyways, she started reading the report from the top again, quietly changing some things here and there as she went. Some time later, while she worked on it with Fangmeyer, someone unexpected showed up rather randomly. Judy grinned when she saw her partner shuffle over on his own. "Hey, Nick! Feeling better?"

Nick shook his head, sitting down where he can see the screen. "Not enough. But had nothing better to do, and the car seat isn't the most comfortable," he commented. "Besides, can't risk letting the two of you send this out without me making sure you didn't slip anything in, Carrots. That's my fur on the line in this report, after all."

Judy was about to protest that neither she nor Dahlia would ever do such a thing, but she caught Nick winking at her and realized that it was just him being his usual self acting all casual and care-free. That simple gesture did bring great relief to her though, as it meant far more that he was starting to feel more like himself, especially compared to how out of it he was earlier in the day. "Sure then, here you go. We've almost got it completed anyways."

As Nick did in fact start typing away at the report, Judy smirked when a thought came across her mind. "So Nick," she asked in a teasing voice, "now that you're clearly getting back up on your own feet, how about taking a little walk?"

Pausing in his typing, Nick slowly turned his head to look at Judy. "I thought you were the one who always told me not to procrastinate on the paperwork, Fluff," he muttered dryly. "Why the sudden change of pace?"

"Nick, you know why," Judy countered. Fangmeyer voiced a similar opinion next to her. "It's not like the computer won't be waiting for you when you come back. Just go and grab James, then come back. Not a big deal at all."

Nick smirked back at his partner. "Okay, fine," he relented. But instead of moving, he added, "and done!"

Judy frowned, slightly annoyed at how his smirk only increased at her own displeasure at how he wasn't getting up. "Nick! I'm being serious here! You need to be up and walking around today." She crossed her arms. "On the one day I am letting you get a pass on doing the part of the job you hate the most, and you don't take it. Care to explain why?"

"Did you ask me to go and fetch Wolfy? Yes you did." Nick replied smugly. "Turn around."

Swiveling her head around, Judy was rather surprised to find that sure enough, Wolford had indeed showed up. "James! You're back!"

"Why so surprised, Hopps?" was his answer, tone a low pitch that was rather different than what it was when he had just left them. "Also, nothing to report from the walk. Boring as expected."

Fangmeyer stood up to inspect Wolford better, noting how his tail hung limply behind him with a certain lack of energy that it normally contained. "You feeling all right? Your tail's sagging."

James shook his head. "Think the med's are kicking in, and not in a good way," he replied with a groan. "Hard and fast too." With a heavy sigh, he sat down on the bench, just about shoving Judy out of the way in the process. "Just… give me a minute," he added, closing his eyes and taking in long, slow breaths.

"Hey, James, you all right there?" Fangmeyer asked uncertainly, not liking how he was now acting significantly worse than before. "Need us to call Bogo and ask to return to the station?"

"Naw, I'll be fine," he answered, opening his eyes slowly. "Like I said, just need a minute."

"Well, okay. We'll continue with the report then. Just say if anything changes," Fangmeyer told him. "You can relax here, or even hop in the car like Wilde had."

When Wolford didn't answer her, she figured that he was where he wanted to be, so let him mind his own business as she returned her own attention back to their work. Out of the corner of her vision, she spotted Nick watching him with a concerned, empathetic expression. Even though they had worked together on and off for over a year now, it still warmed her to see how the fox got along so well with those that he would consider to be straight up as the enemy before his 'occupational switch'. But at the same time, it also hurt her seeing Wolford twitch in discomfort every now and then, knowing that there wasn't anything she could do to help him.

The four of them worked quietly, only making the occasional adjustment. James was clearly using the opportunity to try and relax, but even as he added his own input to their work, there was no mistaking how he fidgeted constantly, trying and failing to get a more comfortable position.

"James, are you-" Fangmeyer began.

"I'm okay, don't worry. Just need..." Wolford glanced around him, scanning quickly for something. "Be right back!" He broke of into a sprint, heading straight to the car. No, not the car, but past it, and disappearing down the incline leading to below the bridge where they parked next to.

"I'll go check on him," Fangmeyer said with a firm tone, standing up as well. "You two stay here. Don't need to make a scene and attract attention." Minding her own words, she walked normally over to and past the car, to the incline. It was a grassy hillside, covered in small bushes and the occasional tree and ending with a water filled canal at the bottom, but to her disappointment and concern, no Wolford. But it didn't take her long to find his location when she head the sound of hurling coming from a large clump of bushes close by.

"James?" she called out, eyes looking out for any visual sign of him. "You okay down there?" She waited for him to answer, but when he didn't, she tried again. "James..?"

Then finally. "I'm fine!" His voice called out "I'll be right up!"

Fangmeyer hesitated. Something didn't sound quite right with him. Or maybe it was just her imagination. Then again, if he was busy throwing up, there was more than enough reason not to sound fine. And so, willing to give him some time, she decided that she can afford to wait. "Okay! I'll be by the car waiting." With a few steps, she was back where she told him she would be, and leaned against a door, impatiently counting the seconds until Wolford would emerge. As she waited, she found herself rapidly growing impatient as he failed to emerge as promised. Trying to distract herself, Fangmeyer pulled out her phone and used it to browse the web, anything really to keep her mind from wondering back to worry uselessly over her partner.

The important thing was that James was fine, and based on the lack of any loud or sudden noises from below, he was still down there hiding.

"Dahlia! We're done!"

Quickly hiding her phone, Fangmeyer looked up eagerly, only to feel a sudden rush of confusion when she didn't see Wolford coming up. Then her mind caught up with her and she realized that it wasn't him anyways. He didn't sound like Judy, nor would he refer to himself in the plural. Turning her head around, sure enough, Nick and Judy were walking over, computer in paw.

Taking the compute from them when they arrived, she quickly scanned through it, already more than familiar with this version of the report and nodding when she got to the end. "Looks good. We're calling it and sending it to Bogo then?"

Judy nodded back. "If you don't see any other last minute changes, then sure." She looked around, searching for the missing member of their group. "Um, where's James? Didn't he say that he'll be up soon?"

Fangmeyer blinked, but then remembered. Right - bunny hearing. "Uh, yes, he did say that," she confirmed.

"That was close to ten minutes ago," Judy elaborated.

Cursing at herself, Fangmeyer stomped over to the incline again. "James!" she yelled out at the bushes below, now anger creeping into her voice as she fought to suppress her worries over his state. "You coming up or what?"

"J-Just a moment!" he answered back desperately.

Once again, Fangmeyer found herself taken aback. Sure, he had his reasons for wanting to hide out, but there was something in his voice that was really _off_. For someone who trusted her to protect his life against dangerous criminals, there was something too unusual to just ignore. "James, I'm coming down!" she warned.

As she carefully made her way down the slope, she could hear him shuffling about quickly behind the bushes. Stopping next to the bushes, she could just make out hints of his fur and the blue of his uniform from through the gaps in the branches and leaves. "James? What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" he replied quickly, but still didn't emerge from his hiding spot.

Frowning, Dahlia spotted a gap in the bushes that she could squeeze through and get to him. "James, I'm coming in," she warned again. This was just getting too ridiculous and she needed to get to him and find out just what in the world was going on.

"...Please don't."

She hesitated, despite telling herself that nothing he would say would stop her. It wasn't that he asked her not to go, but _how_. There was no mistaking the pleading desperation in his tone that conveyed just how much he didn't want get to go after him. Fangmeyer quickly ran through the possible scenarios in her mind, trying to figure out what might be the problem. There was no way that it was the nighthowlers reverting into effect. James wasn't sounding angry or in any loss of control, so there was no way that they were the reason.

Was it that he didn't want her to see him puking? That couldn't be it at all – their line of work meant that they would inevitably run into something so unappealing that meals would be expelled from time to time. It was such a common problem that new cops would routinely be given advice along the lines of 'if you have to puke, do it around the corner and get back to do your job'. And James was no rookie fresh out of the academy, so there was no way that this would be the reason for his behavior. Coming up blank, Fangmeyer made up her mind.

Taking a heavy sigh, she edged towards the gap in the branches. "James, I know you don't want me to, but I'm going." Forcing the bushes aside, she pushed her way in, freezing when she got her first good look at her partner, and at his wide, shame-filled eyes. Her eyes traveled up and down the rest of him, instantly recognizing exactly why he didn't want her to be here even as he now tried to hide away from her, shrinking into the bushes behind him.

"Oh, James..." Backing out of the bushes she just went through, Dahlia pulled her phone out again. "James, I'm going to call Bogo. You can't continue working like this," she said, knowing that he could still hear her. "Get you back to the station. Hopefully he'll be able to get that Doctor Honey to figure out what's wrong as well. And… stay here, I'll get you some things from the car."

"...Okay."

There was an almost sort of relief in his voice with that single word. It was almost as though Wolford was finally relieved that Fangmeyer had finally went in and caught him, and therefor giving the opportunity to stop pretending that he was fine.

Silently dialing Bogo's number from memory, Fangmeyer climbed back up the sloped ground to the car. He answered quickly, almost making her forget what she wanted to say as she wondered if he had been hovering over his own phone the entire day, waiting for something to happen. Throwing the thoughts aside, she quickly began to give him an update on Wolford's condition, all in the meantime grabbing the supplies she wanted from the car. Cleaning supplies, spare rags, even a spare shirt that looked roughly his size. She didn't want to know where it came from, but it looked clean enough and would do its purpose.

The entire time, Nick and Judy stood by, worried expressions as they overheard the conversation. As Judy opened her mouth to ask a question, Fangmeyer frantically waved at her to stay quiet, still busy with the phone and Bogo.

Closing the door to the car, arms full of things she grabbed for James, Dahlia carefully made her way back down to him, head tilted to keep the phone from falling. She didn't like what she was hearing from Bogo.

"_-until I can get someone else to replace your shift, I'm afraid I can't have you drive back with Wolford,"_ Bogo was explaining, _"and I can't leave Hopps and Wilde without a car either. Let me check some things here for a second." _He hung up, giving her a short break, allowing her to get closer to James without worrying about needing to keep the phone presses against her ear.

Stopping next to the bushes again, Fangmeyer called out to him to let him know that she was back, just in case he somehow missed the noise of her approach. "James? You still here?" Rather a silly question, considering that she could see glimpses of him through the plants, but she wasn't bothering with being creative in letting him know of her presence.

"Y-yeah, I'm still here," he replied back quietly. "Listen, I'm really sorry about this. But had I known that it would get like this-"

"Don't worry about it," she replied, cutting him off. "This stuff happens, all cops know that. And besides, someone in your situation-" her phone buzzed as Bogo called back. "Uh, Bogo's calling. Here, I'll shove the stuff through these branches here and you'll be able to grab it." Answering the call, she used one paw to answer the phone and the other to move the supplies over to her partner. "Yes, sir?"

"_Fangmeyer, I've got two updates. First, I was able to get a message from the doctor: nothing to worry about, just a side effect of the medications Officer Wolford is on. Second, I have Officers Andersen and Snarlov on their way over. They were done with their work underground and were returning, so happening to be the closest to your location."_ There was a long sigh from Bogo through the phone. _"Unfortunately, it does mean that Count and Trigger are with them still. Try to find a way to fit them into the car, I don't want them wandering about the city at the moment. And on top of that, the doctor also wants Hopps and Wilde back at the station along with you and Wolford. Wilde mostly, doc says better get him off the streets before he has the chance to get effected like Wolford just had."_

Fangmeyer's frowned with annoyance at this news. Not only were they now going to have to figure out how to place more mammals than seats into the car, James was also going to need more room than usual on top of that. Still, compared to other challenges of being a cop, this was nothing. "No problem, sir. We'll figure it out," she reassured Bogo. "I'll let everyone know what they need to do."

"_Good. ETA is about five, ten minutes. Now, may I speak to Officer Wolford, or is he unavailable?"_

"Let me check, hang on," lowering the phone, Dahlia raised her voice again. "James? It's Bogo. Got a second to talk to him?"

There was the sound of frantic shuffling from the other side of the bushes, but then Wolford's arm popped out through the branches. "Hand him over," he replied, and as soon as Fangmeyer had her phone in his paw, the arm disappeared back behind the greenery.

Deciding not to eavesdrop on the conversation, Fangmeyer walked back up to the car and to the other two waiting officers. Quickly, she explained the situation to them. "-Oh, and as for that report, might as well just hand it over to Bogo in person," she finished saying. Just in time too, as the sound of Wolford made them aware that he was back.

James managed to clean his uniform up enough so that it wasn't completely obvious that something was wrong by looking at him. But there was no mistaking the tail tucked between his legs, ears flat over his head, and the defeated, vulnerable expression on his eyes. Not to mention, as he came closer, handing Fangmeyer back her phone, an unpleasant odor - a mixture of cleaning agents and the very things they were failing to block, wafted over in everyone else's direction.

Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Nick shuffled off and away to try and avoid the worse of the stench, earning him a dirty glare from Judy.

James paused, looking hurt at seeing the fox's reaction. "Wilde, not a word-" he started to argue.

"I was already this close to being in the same boat you're in now," Nick argued back, paws blocking his nose and mouth. "And I didn't have any breakfast _or_ lunch to lose." He glared back at Judy. "So if neither of you will mind, I want to keep my distance."

Not wanting the two bicker, Fangmeyer walked over to her partner and nudged him away. "Let's get you inside and turn the air on, James," she said gently. Leading him over to the passenger side door, she allowed Judy to argue with Nick as she instead took care of her partner. He was hesitant to actually sit down, but she reassured him that there won't be any trouble with cleaning up the seat afterwards, so he eventually relented, but not without opting to sit in the back rather than the front.

"Don't want the car air to be blasting through me and at everyone else," he argued back when Dahlia insisted that he still take the front seat. "Besides, back seats are easier to clean."

Fangmeyer then remembered that he was most likely not yet aware of a piece of news that was one of the other reasons she wanted him to sit in the front. "James, the closest officers to replace us here are Andersen and Snarlov," she explained, "they didn't have a chance to drop Count and Trigger off at the station yet. Back seats are going to be very cramped."

Wolford cursed when she said this. "Stick them in the front then," he argued back, crossing his arms in anger. "Hell, let them drive! I don't want either one of them complaining about something I had no control over. And besides, I'm already sitting down. And I don't want to get back up again until we get back to a place with a shower." He looked at Fangmeyer, pained expression urging her to drop the subject. "Moving around is uncomfortable enough as is."

She gave him a sad smile in return. "Don't know about letting them drive, but if you insist, I'm not going to argue. Just try not to let this get to you, okay? You'll be fine again soon." James grunted back, even managing to return a hint of a smile, but didn't say anything. Dahlia then allowed herself to try and think of how to best fit two pilots along with the four officers in the one car with its four-and-a-half seats. Several ideas came to her, but they were tossed aside when the sound of a car engine, just background noise for the entire day with the traffic all around them, caught her attention. Looking away from James, she smiled in relief when the reassuring sight of a second police car drove over, pulling over, and parking next to them.

"Heard you lot got into a bit of a pickle, figured you could use an extra set of paws!" Anderson announced with a grin as he got out of the car. Spotting Wolford glaring back at him past the open door, he shrugged innocently. "You all right there, buddy?"

"Does it look like I'm all right?" James growled back, getting annoyed at the unwanted attention he was receiving.

Andersen shrugged as Snarlov joined him outside their car. "Could be worse," he replied plainly.

Fangmeyer sighed in a half-amused, half-annoyed manner. As much as the jabs at one another were a normal affair for working as a cop, sometimes she wished that the guys could just shut up and focus on the work at hand. "Boys, do you mind?" As Andersen grinned and focused back on his own car, she turned her own attention to other matters that needing dealing with. "Hopps! Wilde! A moment, if you may?" She waited for the two smaller officers to run over before explaining what she wanted from them. "Wilde, if you won't mind grabbing the pilots?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem." Nick wandered off to the second car, his usual carefree smirk plastered over his muzzle, making it hard for Fangmeyer to gauge an estimate as to how he was feeling now. Not that it mattered really, they would all be soon back at the station anyways.

"Hopps, there is going to be the problem of fitting all of us inside," she instead told Judy. "Have any ideas on how to get everyone inside? Especially since..." her voice lowered to just shy above a whisper, despite the fact that the wasn't going to say anything that no one around them didn't already know. "...Especially considering how James is now," she finished.

"I suppose Nick can drive, it won't take him too long to readjust the seat to his size," Judy responded quickly enough, her voice trailing off as she thought about it some more. "And I suppose we can have you hold me. Doesn't violate any codes that I am aware of." She couldn't help but grin as she looked over to where Nick was waiting on Count and Trigger. "I can already hear Count complaining about being cramped in the back with us, so he can sit in the front, I don't mind."

"Agreed with you there," Fangmeyer said quickly, nodding as she did so. "But what about Trigger? From what James said when I just talked to him about it, he didn't seem to like the idea of having him in the back either."

Judy tilted her head in confusion. "Uhh, but if we place him in the front as well, who will drive?"

"I don't know," Fangmeyer answered truthfully. "Count is definitely out because I'm not even sure if the seat will go back far enough to let him drive. But _Trigger_?" She huffed, thinking it over. "I suppose he's not the worst choice, but I don't even know if he knows how to drive. Do pilots even need to know how to drive before they are allowed to fly?" she eyed Judy as she pondered it over. "I mean, as silly as it sounds, but we're _cops_. We can't just stick someone we _know_ doesn't have a valid driver's license on them behind the wheel." She motioned at Judy to paw over the car keys, eyeing them when she took a hold of them. "Don't want to place either one of them in the back either," she muttered under her breath. Making up her mind, she glanced back at Judy. "Hopps, would you be comfortable letting Trigger drive then? I'll sit next to Wolford, and like you suggested, you can sit on my lap, and we'll have enough seats."

Judy immediately remembered how Trigger was in the morning, and even earlier than that, at night. Truth be told, she didn't actually feel all that comfortable letting him drive. Knowing that he was on the sleep-deprived side compounded with what was most likely a bad mood, mixed in with those stupid shock collars, meant that she had her worries about the idea. But as she was about to voice her concerns to Dahlia, she glanced in Nick's direction, spotting him coming back to her with Count and Trigger in tow.

Contrary to how he was in the morning, Trigger was looking far more cheerful, even sporting a hint of a sly grin on his muzzle as he was talking with Count about something. The collar around his neck confirmed the lack of any serious emotions, glowing a healthy green. Well, in that case, it was only a relatively short drive back after all…

"I think he'll be fine driving," Judy concluded, nodding at Fangmeyer. "Just make sure that he actually knows how to though."

Nodding back, the larger officer smirked as she looked over at the pilot in question. "Hey Trigger! You know how to drive a car?"

Trigger stopped in his steps, confused expression. "Uh, yeah," he answered back, sounding like it was the dumbest question in the world. "Why..?"

"Then congratulations!" Smirk deepening, Fangmeyer tossed the keys over, which to his credit, he caught in the very last second. "You've been to volunteered to drive us back to the station."

"Uh, okay..." Trigger stared at the keys, blinking with confusion at the sudden change of pace.

Next to him, Count had other priorities. "Hey, how come Trigger gets to drive and I don't?" he asked in a peeved tone.

"Because one," Fangmeyer said impatiently, "Hopps drove in, so the seat installed is far too small for you. And two-" she hesitated, realizing that she didn't actually have a good reason to give to him as to why exactly he wasn't allowed to drive. "Two because we said so," she concluded. "Just get in the car, and don't say a word."

Shrugging, Count glanced between Trigger and the car. "Can I call shotgun?" he asked quickly.

"Yes, we were planning on sticking you there anyways," Fangmeyer replied. "Now if you don't mind, get in the car. And please, _for the love of everyone involved_, spare us your commentary when you do."

"Eh, whatever," Count muttered, gently pushing Trigger forwards. "Come on then, you were given a job to do. Try not to mess it up."

Trigger nudged Count right back. "You're on!"


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: Differences of Opinion**

Count was grinning as he went about adjusting the passenger seat of the cop car. "Hey, I never got to sit on this side of the divider before! Hey, Trigger, think you can go full on lights and sirens?"

"Don't ask me, Count," Trigger replied, busy with adjusting the driver's seat to his size. "I'm just the driver seat."

The deer pilot was about to do just that when he stopped, his grin instantly vanishing, replacing instead with a furled nose of disgust as he sniffed the air. "_Trigger_..." he warned coldly.

"Don't look at me like that, Count," the other pilot calmly replied, turning the key on the ignition and starting the car to life. As soon as the motor rumbled to life, he instantly reached over for the fan controls and turned on the air flow to full blast, ears lowering in annoyance at the noise. "Just shut up and try to ignore it," he added as an afterthought.

With an angry snarl, Count turned to look behind them. "You sure it wasn't you, Trigger?" he asked sarcastically, "'Cause I doubt it was one of the cops, considering they were all just outside with us, and..." he froze, eyes locking onto the nervous form of James, busy pretending to ignore him while staring out the back window. Taking a few more quick sniffs of the air, he turned back to stare out the windshield in disgust, arms crossed. "Nice dude," he grumbled, "way to go! Well do-"

"_Count_!" As he hissed at his fellow pilot, Trigger reached across the center console to block Judy from springing forwards to strangle Count to death. "First of all, if you're going to complain, I really don't need to hear it," Trigger hissed, disdain at the other pilot's behavior evident in his voice. "And second-" He turned around to glance at Judy. "So uh, where exactly do I need to drive to get back?" he grinned sheepishly, noticeably trying hard not to look over at Wolford's direction.

Judy was ready with her phone before he even finished asking the question. "Here you are," she handed over the device, map on and displaying the directions on where to go. "Just follow the map."

"Thanks," Taking the phone, Trigger gave it over to Count to hold. But just as he was about to set the car into gear to drive off, he hesitated. "Uhh, anyone know that lady walking over to us?" He pointed out the windshield, where sure enough, the same event organizer, Foster, from the morning was making her way towards their car. And, to make sure that non of them were going to mistake her intentions, she was waved at them as she came closer.

In the back seat, Wolford groaned and tried to shrink into his seat. "Great, what does she want now?" he complained.

"James, quiet," Fangmeyer whispered back at him. "Hopefully not much and we'll leave soon." He simply huffed back in reply.

"I'll talk to her," Judy announced, unstrapping her seatbelt. "Trigger, lower the window."

Trigger quickly adjusted the his shirt to try and hide the tame collar around his neck as he complied and lowered the window, wincing in discomfort as Judy clambered over his legs to poke her head out and wave back at the deer.

Foster stopped next to the car, grinning at Judy and tilting her head to look at the other occupants of the car. "Afternoon officers!" She gave another little wave upon recognizing Dahlia and James in the back.

Judy returned the grin. "Afternoon miss..." her grin turned sheepish. "Sorry, I'm afraid I forgot your name."

The deer waved a hoof dismissively. "Foster, but it doesn't matter," she answered quickly. "Just I couldn't help but notice that it appears that you are all ready to leave," she said. "I did see you patrol around us several times, and I really wished that you would have been able to join in more than you have, but we aren't going to conclude the event until another several hours," she explained. "And I do believe the paperwork we filed asked for police presence for the entire time. Just to stress, we don't expect anything bad to happen, but you never know with these things." she shrugged, even looking slightly ashamed. "At times like these, you can never tell."

"I'm afraid we were called back to the station," Judy explained, her tone formal but apologetic. "Officers Andersen and Snarlov are in the second car just there," she pointed at the other cop car, "they are taking over patrolling the event for us."

Foster looked disappointed at the news. "Any word on if Jones will be here today? We were _really_ hoping to see him today..."

"Yeah, he's on his way," Judy glanced back in surprise when it was Count that answered. "Ask the two cops in the other car for clarification, but when we were driving over he messaged that he can make it in an hour or so."

"Great!" The organizer started at Count with a curious expression, causing him to stare back at her in some sort of battle of wills.

Glancing between the two, Judy saw that he had also hidden his collar like Trigger had, so she doubted that Foster somehow spotted the rather tiny hint of a bulge at the back oh his shirt. Then, out of nowhere, Foster smiled and started to speak in some strange language.

Count slowly blinked back at her, then suddenly returned the smile, answering back in the very same language. The two continued to exchange words until Count said something while motioning at Trigger's direction.

"-Wait, a coyote as well?" Foster asked, reverting to English, beaming even brighter. "Even in this city, I'm afraid there aren't enough of you around. Day's getting better and better!" As though only noticing Trigger now, she looked over him, nodding and humming to herself as she studied him. Under her watchful gaze, he stared back nervously, unsure how to react to her. Then, just as suddenly as with Count, she started to talk to Trigger in a new language as well. Whether it was the same one as with Count or not, it was hard to tell with how quickly she was vocalizing. What was not mistakable was the confused expression on his face as her words went past his ears without any hint of comprehension.

"Uhh miss-" he interrupted her, tilting his head and lowering his ears to emphasize his confusion. "I have no idea what you are saying. Like, at all."

She paused in her speech, blinking at him as though unable to recognize the fact that he wasn't able to understand her. "But you're a coyote," she countered with some hesitation, to which he nodded in agreement. "Th- that's your language!" she explained, struggling to comprehend that he was unable to understand her. "How can you not understand the _language of your species_?" She spread her arms wide. "And it's far more than just a language. It's your heritage! Your own unique culture! You can't let such a thing slip away!" She stopped, pointed a finger at him, and tapped on the car door. "You wait right here!" she commanded excitedly. "Stay here while I get something! I-I'll be right back!" Sure enough, she turned and bolted back in the direction of the event.

With her gone and sprinting away from the car, Trigger let out a long sigh and slumped back in his seat. "Creepy lady," he breathed out, nudging Judy to let her know that she can get off him.

Next to him, Count chuckled. "Why? I rather like her," he said, "don't run often into someone else that can speak Nejan. You know, the old deer language? Doesn't matter. Anyways, I don't know how she figured right away that I could speak it too. Lucky guess on her part I reckon."

"What did she tell you anyways?" Trigger asked, tapping his paws on the steering wheel. "You know, we really should go. Drive back to the station and all."

"Running away, eh, Trigger?" Count asked, grinning smugly. "She only made some small talk with me. As for driving away, that would be very rude of you," he commented. "Better wait for her to come back."

"That's not up to me to decide," Trigger argued back. "Wolford? You need us to go?"

From the back, James was also able to find the humor in the situation. "I'm in a rush, but not _that_ much in a rush to get back," he explained with a chuckle. "It's rather funny watching you squirm like a school kid who just flunked a test. And as for me, worst part is already over. Uhh, I hope." He glanced at Judy and Dahlia nervously. "So if anyone here doesn't object, Count is correct in that it would be very rude of you to just up and leave. So what I'm saying is, while I really won't mind if you go, don't go using me as the reason for fleeing."

"It's not _flee__ing_!" Trigger protested, clearly exacerbated. The others in the car laughed at his complaint, Count elbowing him in the ribs. "It's just… it's embarrassing!" he complained glaring at the other pilot and rubbing his side. Still grinning, Count shrugged and motioned at Trigger's collar shirt bulge as a warning. "The way she looked at me?" Trigger continued, ignoring Count's behavior, "It's well… Excuse me for not realizing that I was supposed to I don't know… be born knowing how to speak in whatever she was babbling on about. And it's not like-" he froze, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. "You know what? Just forget about it."

"Don't worry, Strikes, we won't think any less of you for that," Nick reassured him, wide grin plastered on his muzzle. It only widened when Judy threw at him a very disapproving look.

"What Nick is really saying is that we are not judging you on what languages you can or can't speak, even if it's one that supposed to be important to coyotes," she clarified with a stern voice, eyes locked with his. "Isn't that right, Nick?"

Nick winked back at her. "Sure thing, fluff!"

In the front of the car, Trigger just let out a sigh. "What part of 'just forger about it' did not make sense?" He made a small groan of displeasure after glancing out the window. "Never mind, she's coming back already."

Sure enough, in a matter of moments, the deer was back and quickly shoved a small stack of papers and books through the window towards him. "Just some basic information, and I was even able to get a basic dictionary for you," she explained flipping through the items. "Are you sure you _really_ need to be going?" she asked, eagerness creeping back into her voice. "It would be really great if you can join us here, even for a little while." Her eyes darted over to Nick before settling back at Trigger. "Everyone know about the stereotypes foxes have to deal with, but far fewer realize that coyotes have to deal with much of the same issues."

"I am more than well aware of that," Trigger replied sternly, taking the book and papers, "and while I don't want to come off as rude, but we really do need to get going."

She looked disappointed at his words, but not hurt by them. "All right, all right, I'll let you go." She tapped the papers. "But do read over these, please. And I've written my professional contact info on them, if you will ever want to ask some more questions about anything on here." Finally stepping back away from the window, she waved at the occupants. "Thank you for your help today, officers!" Trigger waved back hardheartedly and started to close the window, stopping only when she darted back towards it. "Wait, I don't think I've gotten your names!"

"Greg, that's Forge," Count quickly answered for the two of them, leaning past a frozen Trigger, waving goodbye to her himself. "Nice meeting you, miss!" He smiled out at her, only relenting when the window finally closed. Letting out a sigh of relief, he leaned back into his seat. "Okay, you might have a point about her," he muttered to Trigger. When he didn't get any reply, he glanced over and sighed again. "Trigger, _breath_! You're going to buzz yourself. Gee, what's up with you, anyways?"

"-I'm fine!" Trigger answered back sternly, causing Count to chuckle.

"Uh uh," he answered with his own smirk, "and that orange glow under your shirt is from the sun on it, I know. Huh, didn't think she would get to you like that."

"Count? Please… just shut up for a moment."

"Boys! Calm down." From the back, Judy held her breath, hoping that their driver wasn't about to loose his cool have his collar put him out of commission before they even set off. Where she sat on Dahlia and between Nick and Wolford, she had the best view of the two pilots in the front seats out of the officers. To her relief, after only a short while of staring out the window, Trigger's collar switched back to a gentle green. With a slight jolt, he shifted into gear and they were off, driving back to the station. The part of her mind that wondered what a pilot drove like was answered when she discovered that Trigger… was not too confident of a driver. Observing his driving, his two paws held tightly on the steering wheel, every movement calculated and deliberate, with their speed often hovering lower than the speed limit. Or the rest of the traffic around them, for that matter, which ignored the cop car as the cars around them passed on both sides in their rush to get on with the day. What it did mean though, was that the ride was quite smooth, so Judy didn't try to correct Trigger's driving.

As for herself, Judy tried to get comfortable while trying to squeeze in between Nick and Dahlia, but she had to admit that this arrangement was less than ideal. Her shuffling about trying to get comfortable must have drawn Count's attention, for he turned around again to look at the officers at the back.

"So the hell happened to you anyways?" he asked. "Shouldn't you be like… resting at home or something? You know, instead of working?" Taking another whiff in Wolford's direction, he turned back with a disgusted expression.

"Hey, Count, take Trigger's advice and shut up," James grumbled back. His scowl softened when he felt Fangmeyer squeeze his paw, but his anger didn't fully go away as he huffed and pressed his muzzle against the door glass, staring outside.

Trigger too joined in with the scolding of the other pilot. "Ever tried not antagonizing everyone you meet, Count?" he asked. "Might turn out well for you."

Despite being on the receiving end of the words, Count chuckled again. "Antagonize? You're one to talk, you've got the highest kill count in the entire squad!"

"That's different and you kn-"

"And besides," Count continued, ignoring Trigger's argument, "I thought this was all very familiar to you. In fact, doesn't this remind you of four-four-four?"

"I- I have no idea what you're talking about," Trigger replied. Despite forcing himself to sound calm, there was a noticeable strain in his voice.

Judy glanced at Nick quickly before looking back at Count and Trigger, wondering where this latest conversation was going.

"Don't think I didn't catch you still over-inspecting all the food you're given," Count said with a smirk. "Also, you really are a terrible liar."

"I stopped doing that a while ago," Trigger mumbled almost to himself. "Can we switch to something else? I'm driving here."

"What? Now you want to tell me that talking about some harmless talk is going to cause you to buzz yourself?" Count teased, "Wolford back there didn't cause any issues so far. Why start now?"

At being mentioned, James groaned in frustration at the back. "Leave me out of this, will you?" His patience was wearing thin with the two pilots' bickering, but especially with Count in particular. "Chief Bogo had his reasons for keeping us busy today, which we all agreed to. None of us expected this to happen. So I would highly appreciate it if you mind your own business!"

Nick grinned as he leaned over to look at the other officer. "Wolfy, between you and me, but if Buffalo Butt didn't sign my paycheck, I wouldn't mind hurting him for forcing us to work today." Judy again punched him in the arm, earning a yelp from him as he glared back at her. "What?" He hissed, rubbing the sore spot. "Only a little bit! Maybe." The grin still on his muzzle betrayed the fact that he wasn't actually mad at her.

"You can't say things like that Nick," Judy scolded, "even if you are recovering. You don't see James voicing the same opinion, do you?"

"Actually Hopps, just because I didn't say anything doesn't mean I don't agree with Wilde," James corrected her. "Well okay, maybe I'm not mad at Bogo, because he also didn't have any idea that this would happen. But I do want to feel mad about _someone_! Or something, still deciding between the two. What I'm saying is that I wouldn't mind pounding on something to feel better." He huffed in annoyance. "And you, Count? Why bring this up at all? Don't you have anything better to talk about?"

"Hey, just reminding Trigger of some good times back when we flew," Count replied back. "Don't get me wrong, not being shot at is great an all, but pilots like us gotta spread our wings. Going underground like we did today is the complete opposite."

Trigger grunted in agreement. "Yeah… Actually, just a couple of days back I was dreaming that I was flying," he said with a longing tone. "Not fighting or anything. Just me, the plane, the sky and the clouds." There was a short pause. "Strange thing was that I knew right away that I was dreaming because I immediately recognized that the cockpit I was in was that of an F-15. Which is weird because I've never even been inside one of those. Anyways, flying then was far better than what Count here considers 'good times'."

The other pilot snorted. "Aww, don't be like that, Trigger. Hate on McDicksey all you want, but he's rather harmless once you get up in the air."

"Well actually..." Trigger began with uncertainty in his voice.

Count glanced over just in time to notice Trigger's collar turn yellow and even briefly flash red beneath the shirt. Good thing they were waiting at a red light. "_No..._" he gasped in mock horror. "No way! He made you fly_? __While sick__?_"

"...Yes."

Even without seeing his face, just from his tone alone, Judy could easily imagine Trigger's embarrassed and ashamed expression. Out of the corner of her vision, she could see the other officers next to her also staring towards the front of the car with renewed interest.

"That son of a bitch!" Count swore loudly, "I know he's a terrible commander, but this? He really doesn't… he can't _do that_! That's exactly how pilots get killed!" He grunted in discomfort as his own collar turned red and let out a jolt. "Trigger, you've got to be pulling my leg! There's no way you would have been authorized to fly by the medical staff! And did Bandwolf know? Why didn't he send you immediately back?"

"The doctors insisted that I be grounded," Trigger answered bitterly. "But they were overridden by Guess Who. McKinsey claimed I was 'vital for the mission' and other nonsense like that. And so, I had to go up. Insisted that I was faking it anyways, so it's not like I had anything to really complain about, or so he said. And Bandwolf? He wasn't allowed to let me leave the AO no matter what." He glanced to the side at Count. "And I think it's my turn to ask you... you okay there? I didn't think you buzz yourself like that, _ever_."

"_Vital for the mission?_" Count repeated in disbelief. "My fluffy white tail! Which one was it anyways?"

"It was Operation Th-" Trigger's voice cut off suddenly in a nervous hitch. "It was the one with all the sand," he explained carefully with a second attempt. "The one that turned into hide and seek."

"Yeah, right, that one, I remember," Count muttered under his breath before swearing loudly again. "Wait, _that one_? The hell we needed you there for? It was a bloody milk run! I know McDicksey is terrible, but that's low even for him. Sure, he's careless with our lives, but sending out anyone else like he did with you? That's suicide!" He grunted when his collar went off again. "Is this stupid thing broken?" he demanded angrily, tugging at it away from his neck. "Anyways, I did wonder why you were being even quieter than usual. How was it that one of the guys described you? Just 'quietly plugging away'?"

Trigger snorted in mild amusement. "It was hard enough concentration on the mission without talking to you lot," he said. "It's not like I join in with the chatter on a regular day anyways. But yeah, that mission was very simple, so I got lucky there I guess. Good thing that drones are useless in bad weather, right Count?"

Count visibly tensed. "If you're implying that I was responsible for luring them in, I told you, I was just following the objective when they arrived. It wasn't me!"

"I didn't say it was you," Trigger said calmly, then if his silence was anything to go by, let the matter slide.

Feeling guilty, Judy pulled out her notepad and pencil, quickly jotting down notes on what she just heard. Even after all of the time that the pilots were with them, Bogo still insisted that they record any information that can be used to find out Count's and Trigger's real identities. But a lot of her was still simply curious as to exactly what happened back at their squadron. In many ways, the more she learned, the more she understood why neither Count nor Trigger acted too much like she would expect a pair of combat pilots to be like. A poke at her side caused her to look at Nick.

He shook his head at her pad, then tapped his head instead. She nodded in understanding.

"So let me get this straight," Judy then spoke up, putting the notepad away. "If you don't mind, but unless I'm mistaken, you were sick, and yet you were still forced to gout and fly a combat mission?"

There was another long sigh from Trigger. "That is what I said, wasn't it?" he confirmed. "No, well, the worse was landing at base after the mission was completed. Scrap Queen came over to inspect the state of the plane and well, uh, she..." his ears fell to the side of his head. "Let's just say that she wasn't excited to see the state I came back in. Took one look at me, turned around, and came back with the largest and most powerful water hose she could find."

The other pilot chuckled. "That must have been something. Shame I missed it," he commented, voice veering away as he delved deeper into his own memories of the event. "Say, I don't remember you at the debrief," he commented after a short while, "were you all right after landing? Now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing you at all until the briefing for the next mission, Trigger. Was it that bad?"

"No, that wasn't it," Trigger answered again with a tense voice. His grip on the steering wheel tightened, and the collar around his neck let off a beep of warning.

"Trigger, you're driving. Please be careful," Judy warned, worried that a sudden jolt can cause him to fling the wheel to the side.

"I'm fine, Judy, don't worry about me," the pilot snapped back. But despite the anger in his voice, his collar somehow didn't go off, giving him precious time to cool off. "Well, it's just that after Scrap Queen finished cleaning both me and Laika off, the regular debrief had already ended and McKinsey came over to personally see why I hadn't showed up to it. He wasn't quite able to claim that I was faking illness when even Scrap Queen started to defend my absence, but well, you know how he is. Dismissed the entire thing as nothing more than a mission accomplished and how much the results were going to make him look good to the top brass."

"Yup, that's McDicksey all right!" Count said. "But that still doesn't explain you vanishing from base."

"I was getting to that," Trigger said with an annoyed huff. "So yeah, as I was saying, here I was, soaking wet, tired like you won't believe, and most of all, just plain _pissed off_. So when McKinsey told me that for the debrief there was nothing to report and shrugged me off? I lost it! Got a good punch in before Scrap Queen forced me away. And you know his idea of discipline, Count, so that's why you didn't see me around until the next mission."

Count sniggered. "You whacked him? Nice! Should have let me have a go as well, would have been totally worth it in my opinion." He turned towards Trigger again. "Say, with your punch, where did you get him?"

Trigger grinned back. "Right in the chin. Bastard never saw it coming."

"Ha! That's my coyote!" Count praised. "Great going! Though I guess you didn't quite him him hard enough, unfortunately. Damn shame."

Judy frowned, crossing her arms in disapproval. "No, not great going, Count!" she scolded. "You shouldn't be fighting with your superiors, Trigger, either one of you. And Count, you shouldn't be encouraging him!" She could already start imagining Bogo's reaction when he will find out about this – he especially always had his doubts about the pilots, especially Trigger, so to learn that they they respect their own commander so little as to get into a fight with him? Bogo will have a fit, that's for sure.

"Drop it, Judy," Trigger warned from the driver's seat. As yet another traffic light in front of them turned green, the car and all of its occupants lurched as he just about floored the gas pedal. "Not like you can do anything about it now."

"But!.." Judy was not going to simply drop the matter, even as she felt Nick grip her arm to prevent her from vaulting across the car to get right up to the two pilot's muzzles. "But what about unit cohesion? She asked. "Discipline? There needs to be respect between the group leader and those under them! So when it comes to the two of you, the first thing you can start doing is to not take pleasure in one of you hurting the base commander! I don't care how much he deserved or didn't deserve it! Two trained and highly educated pilots acting like beating someone up is a game? Well it's not! _It's wrong_!"

"I don't-" Trigger's argument stopped dead in its tracks before he even started it. He let out his breath slowly but forcefully, concentrating on driving the car instead. "Count? Deal with her if you want, but I'm done."

Count turned around so that he could glare at the bunny. The act moved his shirt away from the collar, exposing the orange warning light on it. Judy's ears lowered as her anger at the two tempered. She realized that pushing them in this argument was far worse for them than it was for her. But still, her pride was willing to just let this slide. She had just stumbled upon a darker side in the two of them, and it was one she was determined to fix. But it didn't erase the sickening feeling that she was the one who was most responsible for completely killing the mood in the car and turning the air completely sour for everyone in it.

"Hopps," Count spoke slowly but firmly, taking care in his words. "No, not just you, but all three of you. Simple question: Since Trigger and I've been living in the station long enough to know that jokes at Bogo's expense are tossed around like candy when he's not around, I am going to ask you a simple question. Do you respect Bogo? Trust him to look out for your best interest when he sends you out?" His eyes glanced between Nick and James. "Like today? Yesterday you got exposed to a poisonous substance, and today you're paying the price for it. Trigger and I had to wear full hazmat suits today when we were below. All of us had to, which is something I doubt the four of you got to wear yesterday. So when Bogo sent you to work today, easy assignment or not, it didn't exactly end up all right. So I want to know your honest opinion: Did Bogo have you work today because he thought it was the best, or because he couldn't care a rat's ass about it? And hey, what's the big deal if an officer goes viral online over their body's reaction to medication?" His eyes locked with a defiant Wolford's, Count hissed out his closing question. "So I ask: Do you trust Chief Bogo?"

Instantly, the three officers gave their answer:

"_Yes!"_

Count nodded, turning back around to face the front again. "Okay, good," he said simply. "That's good. Wish I could say the same thing about Colonel McKinsey. What about you, Trigger?"

"...Huh?" Despite being so involved in the conversation-argument just moments ago, he evidently somehow completely lost track of what was going on.

Count grunted as he glanced over at Trigger. "I was asking-" he stopped, eyes narrowing to get a better look at the other pilot. "Trigger, I'm serious here, what's wrong with you?"

"N-Nothing!" Trigger stammered. He checked the map on the phone quickly. "We're almost there. Just another couple of blocks."

"Don't try stalling on me," Count said with a fresh smirk. "I'm a pilot like you, I can see it from kilometers away." His smirk faded. "It's about yesterday evening, isn't it?"

Trigger winced as his collar crackled lightly against his neck, then nodded slowly. "Yeah," he admitted, "but not only. It's also the drone underground. And talking about four-four-four, everything..." He rubbed his neck nervously, pulling at the collar before it can go off on him again. "Was remembering a lot of really messed up things I thought I was able to forget," he admitted. "Guess it was much harder than I thought." He let out a small grin as Count reached over and shook him by the shoulder gently.

Pulling at the collar again, it gave away into his paw. "-What the..?" he stared at it in confusion for a second.

"We're here, Trigger," Fangmeyer clarified for him. In her own paws was the controller for the collars, and the content sigh from Count confirmed that his own collar also let go. She smiled warmly back at him when he turned around to see who was responsible, a gesture that he, oddly for him, returned with a genuine enthusiasm.

"We're- oh, right, sorry." the car lurched as Trigger slammed the breaks a little too hard to make the final turn into the ZPD parking lot. The car behind them honked loudly in anger at them, rather ironically since they were in a cop car. He drove around the side and to the back, slowing down even more as they dropped down into the underground motor pool. Rather reflective of his driving, Trigger looked quite anxious as he parked the car, eyes darting rapidly between the two cruisers he pulled in between, only turning into a grateful relaxation when he switched the gears to park and killed the engine.

Climbing over the center console, Judy took her phone back, checking it since she couldn't see anyone else in the parking garage. Sure enough, Bogo left a few instructional messages. "James, take a shower, get cleaned up, then head down to get checked by Doctor Honey," she instructed. "Nick, you also need to go down there. Dahlia? You and I are to report to Bogo in his office. Count, Trigger? Doesn't say anything for you two. Think you're free for now." While she knew better than to expect anything else from the instructions, she still felt a pang of disappointment. She really wanted to talk to Trigger privately, feeling quite guilty over her behavior in the car, even if it wasn't _entirely_ her fault. She still should have known better than that. But she still acted out, and she wanted to take responsibility for it and correct her error.

As everyone got out of the car, she hoped that she would at least get to get a quick word in to him before they parted ways, especially since looking over at him, Judy felt bad at just how worn out he looked. Even with his back turned to her, busy collecting the items he got from the event, his tail was giving away his mood with how tightly it was tucked away between his legs. She was about to go and talk to him when a pair of paws grabbed her by the shoulders, preventing Judy from moving.

"Give him some time alone, Carrots," Nick whispered, only letting go of her when she relaxed. "Just trust me on this one. Call it canid instinct." Judy nodded back, trusting her partner and allowing Trigger to head off inside with Count by his side. Booping her on the nose, Nick grinned and stretched, letting out a loud yawn. "Crazy day, huh? Okay, Wolfy, you good there? Let me clear the path for ya!"

James grunted back. "Ready as I'll ever be here, no point in waiting any longer." Awkwardly following Nick inside, he only stopped to quickly wave at Dahlia and Judy. "Pray the doc doesn't find any weird stuff in me!"

The two remaining officers waved him off. "We'll see you _very_ soon, James!" Fangmeyer answered back, putting a lot of emphasis on the word '_very_'. A few moments later, and she had all of their things from the day in her arms. "Okay Hopps, let's go talk to the chief. See what he has to tell us."

Judy nodded, and silently followed the larger officer. It was a good thing they had spent hours on the report, because right now, her mind was no longer anywhere close to the work at hand. Arriving at Bogo's office door, Fangmeyer knocked and the chief's voice called them in. She took a deep breath, trying not to look too nervous. It wasn't even like Judy wasn't aware that Count and Trigger didn't get into worse arguments before. It wasn't even the first argument she had with either one of them.

So a large part of her was still wondering: why had the drive back to the station left her feeling so unnerved?


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: Plans for ****Tomorrow**

"So Judy, are you really sure you want to do this?" Fangmeyer asked as the two of them left Bogo's office. "I mean, you didn't even ask him yet, but you already went ahead and asked Bogo for permission. Kinda jumping the gun on it, aren't you?"

Judy grinned back. Once more with a mission to pursue, her spirits had lifted quite considerably. "No, I don't think so," she answered calmly.

"Just that it's not just Trigger whom you didn't ask yet," Fangmeyer explained further, "you didn't ask either Nick or James, which is also quite important, considering your idea kind of hinges on both of them agreeing to it."

The grin on Judy's face only grew bigger. "Okay, so we'll find them first and ask them," she said, only slightly deviating the course of corridors they were walking through with the simple change of plan. "But do you really think either one of them will say no? After all, if even Chief Bogo agreed, then you might think that I have a thing going here."

Dahlia frowned. "It's not that I think your idea is bad, Judy," she said carefully, "all I'm saying is: that's a lot of other mammals you're relying on to make your plan work. James, for one, will almost certainly have some doubts about it. Not-" she added quickly, "-that I am saying straight away that he will say 'no', just that you will need to prepare for that possibility. And I don't know about Nick either. What if they will not agree with your idea? I can see how excited you're getting over this, Hopps. Will hate to see your disappointment if it will come down to that."

"And you won't get to find out," Judy confidently boasted, "because I know they will agree to it. I will make them. Call if a hustle if you must, but I don't think I will need to resort to trickery for either one of them. And I definitely know that Trigger won't need to be convinced either, so there you have it."

Fangmeyer grunted, amused. "You hang out with Wilde too much," she commented. "And I'm not talking about work either." Judy simply smiled back innocently, pretending not to realize what he was implying. A few more corridors and doors down, and the two of them reached the final door before the medical bay of the precinct. From the chatter and laughter coming in from inside, both James and Nick were there, enjoying what sounded like a rather excited conversation and just generally joking around. "Sounds like someone's enjoying their time off," she commented, then smirked gleefully. "But since they didn't join us at Bogo's office, how about we go and ruin it for them?"

Judy returned the smirk and nodded. "Oh, absolutely!" She let Fangmeyer open the door for the two of them, following the larger officer inside. "We're back, boys!" she greeted cheerfully, stopping in front of the two canidaes.

Nick waved at her with a grin, relaxing on a comfortable looking cloth armchair. Next to him, James was also relaxing on a similar chair, laptop propped up on his knees, and fur still slightly damp from a shower which he had taken recently. Overall though, both of them looked in a much better mood than when they had driven back.

"Long time no see, Hopps. Fangmeyer. Might have even been an entire hour." Next to the two of them, sitting on a spare stool, was Count, casually sewing together a part of his flight uniform. Judy remembered Fangmeyer telling her how he had acted quite embarrassed over being discovered performing his hobby, but now he looked like he couldn't care any less about it. He held up the uniform to show off his work. "What do you think? Like new again, right?"

"Eh, close enough," Dahlia answered, not actually looking to closely. "Nick, James, has Bogo messaged you about tomorrow?"

James shrugged, closing the lid on the laptop. "Not us, but yes to doc Honey. We already know about the medical leave."

"Could have used it today," Nick added. "But I can let it slide as one of those 'better late than never' type of deals." He let out a long exaggerated yawn. "I for one am very much looking forward to sleeping in for once."

Judy huffed and placed her pawn on her hips. "Nick..." she warned. There was no way that Doctor Honey didn't tell them that what Nick was planning on wasn't on the table.

Nick pretended not to hear her, continued instead with listing off what he wished he could do. "Wake up when I am getting sick of lying in bed, make breakfast at two in the afternoon-"

"A break-lunch," Wolford corrected. "Pancakes or waffles, didn't decide which yet."

"Yes yes, a very late break-lunch," Nick nodded. "Blueberry pancakes, only the best! Then perhaps watch some TV for the rest of the day." He winked at Judy. "And you can stop staring at me like that, Carrots. A guy can dream, can't he?" To further emphasize his point, he lifted one of his arms to reveal an IV line going into it. "Safer and more tested than the new pills we were taking earlier. It's the same stuff that was developed after we caught Bellweather, so it's known what it does. But until doc comes back, we're both stuck here," he explained, motioning to Jame's own line.

Next to him, James chuckled. "About that, don't worry, doc already went over the course of action for tomorrow with us. As she insists: Tomorrow, move around even more, yadda yadda, nothing new here." Shifting to a more comfortable position on the chair, he stared at Dahlia. "I know that look. Okay, which one of you already has some elaborate plan? Or perhaps Bogo already made up his mind for us..."

Fangmeyer smirked and gently pushed Judy closer. "Hopps, since it's your idea, care to share?"

Judy grumbled at being forced into the spotlight, but it was far more in jest than actual sincere negativity towards the other officer.

"Hopps has an idea?" Count's voice interrupted from somewhere else in the medical bay. "Let's hear it!" The pilot walked over from somewhere else in the medical bay, fighting to put on his flight suit. While the upper half was struggling to contain his torso, the bottom portion was left dangling around his legs.

Unable to stop herself from looking lower, Judy was relieved to see that he was still wearing a set of loaned pants in the meantime. Immediate crisis averted, she still couldn't help but ask, "wait, what's with your uniform?"

Count smirked, patting his stomach. "Well, this is my second flight suit, after the first one got all torn up. But this one was fitted to me when I was well with four-four-four. And while I don't want to say that the ZPD is making me fat, the fact that the suit doesn't fit right is perhaps a point of concern." He then frowned, pulling the suit off to reveal that he was also still wearing a light ZPD t-shirt underneath. "Come to think of it, I know for a fact that I improved my performance down at your gymn since being stuck here. So its definitely not fat." He then started to chuckle, shaking his head. "Hope there aren't a lot of pictures of me back at that base. Don't want to see how much weight I lost over there."

He flipped the suit over, and after a moment's pause, shoved an arm back through one of the sleeves. Leaning into the turn, he grinned as he showed off the new badge attached in its correct place. "Looks good, doesn't it?" he asked, an odd sense of pride in his voice.

James grinned and nodded, flashing a thumbs up. "Sure does."

Nick used both paws to also show his approval. "Truth be told, didn't think you'll get so excited over wearing that patch. What's it all with Strike's head on it and all."

Count grunted, pulling his arm out to examine the patch again. "Yeah, good point. But... It's _our_ patch. Trigger's head or not, this new design is because of something we did as a unit, compared to the plain old one that was simply given to us. So the new design, especially if it's Tabloid's, well, it's all of us, together. As a squad." His voice faded as he rolled up the flight suit. "And with McDicksey in charge, you really have to take anything you can to claim as your own." Grunting again, he set the suit down and sat down on a spare chair. "Yes, it's the same argument we had in the car driving here. And _y__es_, our squad is _that_ bad. And _no_, I don't want to get into it again." Unexpectedly, he broke into a grin as he leaned back against the chair. "So with that, Hopps, you said you had an idea?"

Judy blinked, having fully expecting Count to go into arguing again. "Oh, right, um, the idea, well..." She cleared her throat in an attempt to hide how much she stumbled over her own words. Rather silly, she agreed, especially since she had no issues telling of her idea to Bogo and Fangmeyer. "So I was thinking, since what the two of you could really use is a nice long hike-" She stopped as Nick grunted in annoyance.

Pointing a finger at him, she continued in a bored tone. "Don't dismiss it just yet, Nick. Besides, it's for your own good." As Nick grumbled with disdain in reply, but letting her continue, Judy still had to wait as James giggled at the fox's reaction to his complaining. "And Dahlia's and my task for tomorrow is in fact to make sure that the two of you don't lazy about on your tails tomorrow, I was thinking that uh, well, the best way to explain it is that it was Trigger who gave me the idea."

"Trigger?" Count interrupted. "What's he got to do with this?"

"I was getting to that, Count, if you please," Judy answered quickly with a hint of impatience. "So as I was saying about Trigger-" she stopped again when Count broke into a grin. Next to him, both Nick and James were also trying hard to suppress their own laughter. Dropping her arms to her sides in annoyance, Judy tilted her head at the three of them. "What?"

While the two officers continued to giggle, it was the pilot who was able to answer, even if his voice was strained with amusement. "Well, you're talking about Trigger like he's not here," Count explained slowly. "I mean, might has well bring him into the conversation if you're going to talk about him."

Judy blinked again. "Uh, yeah, but he isn't here." She felt something was off when James had to press on his own nose to suppress a snort of laughter. She stole a glance towards the remaining officer in the room, but Fangmeyer only shook her head with a confused shrug. Dahlia also didn't have a clue as to what was so funny. But Judy was certain she could figure it out. "He's here, isn't he?" she asked accusingly, glaring at Count.

"Right in one, Carrots!" Nick answered.

"Okay. _Where_?" Spreading her arms wide, Judy motioned across the room. Apart from the three males relaxing in the chairs, it was just her and Fangmeyer in the room. Even Doctor Honey wasn't in at the moment. Next to her, Dahlia grumbled in agreement to her question.

Count jerked his head to the side towards an armchair that was facing a work computer. "Uh, right here. Where else?" Still not seeing any sign of anyone else, Judy walked over for a better look, Dahlia close behind her.

Fangmeyer found him first. Snorting from trying to hold back laughter, she asked, "Really? _Here_?"

With her sight no longer blocked by the back of the chair, Judy saw what Count and Dahlia were referring to. She covered her mouth with a paw, softly cooing at the sight of the remaining pilot.

_Aww, __too__ cute! _

She absolutely had the right to use that word, if only to herself, even when referring to others. Or Trigger, in this case - she was the rabbit in the room after all.

There was Trigger, fast asleep. He was curled up completely to fit on the chair, tail curled around his body protectively. Only his his head wasn't on the seat cushion, instead resting on one of the armrests and using it as a sort of hard pillow. Looking over the sleeping coyote, a large part of Judy was relieved at seeing how relaxed he looked, a far cry to his appearance when he had woken her up in the middle of the night. Though a second glance at his head rather diminished the cute feeling as she spotted his slightly open mouth, allowing a small line of drool to slowly leak out and down onto his shirt. Another part of her wondered how he had managed to remain completely oblivious to all the noise around him – she and Dahlia had heard Nick and James talking through _a closed door_. And yet here he was, silently and obliviously dozing away. She remembered being told by Fangmeyer about his sometimes 'strange sleeping habits', and this must have been what she was referring to. Judy let out another little coo as one of his ears twitched in his sleep.

Nick, upon hearing the noise coming from her, smirked in her direction, reaching out from his chair to poke her in the side. "You bunnies!"

Judy shot him a playful glare back, but didn't bother to deny the accusation. "You know though, about my idea? I can wait on letting Trigger know and just tell you guys now. He looks so peaceful, and I don't want to wake him." She again ignored Nick's smirk. Instead, she pulled her phone out, knowing that she had the perfect opportunity to take a picture to share with Clawhauser. But before she was able to do so, her phone decided to beat her to the punch as it woke up with a notification on a new message. She frowned as she read that it was from Bogo. _Ugh, of all times to be needed_. Deciding that a picture can wait, she opened up the message.

_Where can I find you and Fangmeyer? And do you know where our pilots are?_

Quickly typing in a reply, Judy sent away so that she can get back to trying to get a picture. _We're all at the medical wing._

Again, the reply arrived before she was able to take a picture. _Stay there, I'__ll be there soon__._

With a sigh, she showed the short exchange to the other officers. "Guess we do need to wake him then," she added.

Fangmeyer nodded in agreement. "Better than after Bogo arrives," she confirmed, "don't worry, I got a picture." Sure enough, she showed her own phone, and the picture of the sleeping pilot on it. "Want to do the honors then?"

"I'll do it!" Count volunteered, clearly eager to mess around with his fellow pilot some more.

Judy stopped him before he could do so. "No you're not, Count!" she shot back. "Whatever it is that you're planning, don't even think of doing it!" Pushing him back away from the armchair, she turned back towards the still sleeping Trigger. Dahlia helped her with making sure that Count would stay away as Judy turned back around. Reaching out, she gently started to rub the top of his head between his ears. It really did help that the level of the chair meant that his head was right at her arm's level and not above like normally.

From behind her, Nick snorted. "Hey, Fluff, question: How come when you want to wake me up, it's always with a sharp jab in the ribs or something else that's painful, but when it come to him, you decide to give him a head massage?"

Judy didn't even look back as she answered back without even thinking. "That's because he's not my fox," she said simply, scratching some more as both of Trigger's ears started to stir in response to her motions. Despite her retort being nothing more than the first thing that came to her mind, and since she wasn't looking at Nick, she didn't get to see the unexpressed smile and genuine beam of approval coming from him at her simple comment. What she did notice was his tone when he answered back.

"Well, when you phrase it that way… I guess I can let it slide, Carrots." Though with Nick being whom he was, he couldn't let his statement end just like that. "Would still appreciate it if you could poke me around a little less, though."

"I'll keep that in mind," Judy answered back, grinning as her scratching slowly but surely started to have its effect on the sleeping pilot.

Groaning despite the slowly forming smile on his muzzle, Trigger tried to shrug her paw off by barely moving his head. "...Go... away... Tabloid..." he mumbled sleepily, "...I'm… tired..." Ignoring his complaining, Judy only scratched harder, finding it funny that he was mistaking her for someone else.

Count found it funny, too. "How sweet, he thinks we're back at four-four-four," he said. "The pilot with the three strikes. How fearsome."

Trigger fidgeted a bit more, ears swiveling in the deer's direction. "...You too Count..." he mumbled again, "...go away..."

"Fine, I will. But McDicksey's heading over, just so you know," Count said loudly, making sure that his voice would get through the waking fog that was still clearly effecting Trigger.

The effect was instantaneous. With a surprised snort, Trigger shot up from the armchair, tossing Judy's paw away from his head as he struggled to untangle his own limbs.

And from his own momentum, promptly rolling right off the chair, hitting the hard tiled floor with a low _thud_.

Judy was upon him to help him up in a flash, pulling him gently up by an arm. "Sweet cheese and crackers, Trigger, you okay?" From behind her, the other officers, Fangmeyer included, had a different opinion on what just happened if their sudden and loud laughter was anything to go by.

"I'm fine!" Trigger answered back, shrugging Judy's paw off himself as he clambered back up to his feet. As he sat back down on the chair, he stared back at the laughing officers, an embarrassed grin of his own slowly forming on his muzzle. "Count, you're a real jerk, you know that?" he asked, wincing as he rubbed his side.

Count shrugged in reply, still laughing. "-Don't blame me! Unlike Bogo, I didn't blast an air-horn-" he had to stop to chuckle again. "-That was all you!" With a few deep breaths, he was able to calm himself down enough to talk more normally. "You know, you can try sleeping around less. Or perhaps if you really, really want to take naps, you can, you know, do it _normally_. As in, like normal mammals. But as to being a jerk? Hey, if Wilde here can by Hopp's fox, then I'm you jerk. You're welcome." He gave a slight nod of his head, lifting an arm up to to imitate the act of tipping the tip of a top hat. "Besides, it's you fault for being completely out of it. You were so out, in fact, that you thought we were still back at base!"

Despite still being clearly embarrassed over the whole thing, Trigger was able to also find the humor in that and also joined in the chuckles caused by Count's comment, even if his reaction was more subdued compared to everyone else. "I was out of it, wasn't I? And what's that just now about Wilde being… Hopp's fox?" Trigger looked at Nick and Judy for an explanation, they both shrugged in innocence at him, though Nick was sporting such a wide grin that it was impossible not to know that he knew what Count was talking about. Letting out a frustrated groan as he rubbed his side again. "Okay, fine, but you're still a jerk," he relented. "Though why the hell did you have to wake me up anyways? It's not like McKinsey's actually heading over."

"No, but Bogo is," Count explained in a surprisingly calm and neutral tone.

Trigger snorted. "So?" He looked over at Judy again. "He's your boss, not mine. Although-" His voice stopped as he tilted his head, as though trying to spot something in her. "It was you. You were the one scratching me to get me to wake up..."

"Guilty as charged," Judy answered, "but we did want to wake you up before Bogo arrives, even though..." she grinned, "I have to say you look quite cute when you sleep." She ignored Nick's protest at the usage of the word, wanting to conclude her statement to the pilot. "Even if you do drool." From behind her, more chuckling and snickering was heard.

"I don't-!" Trigger started to argue, only to stop when his right paw, almost as though on its own, found the wet patch of evidence on his shirt and started to rub it off fruitlessly. "Okay, then maybe I do," he relented, ears lowering slightly in shame. "But only a little!" He gave up trying to wipe the smudge and lowered his arm back down. "Still? I was asleep and you woke me up." As if to emphasize his point, he let out a loud, drawn-out yawn. "...I was rather enjoying it." He then snorted amusement. "And I thought you were Tabloid. To mistake a bunny for a timber wolf? I mean seriously..."

Before Count could again interrupt with some snarky remark, Dahlia took the initiative and beat him to it. "Hopps..." she warned, "mind actually getting around to explaining why you felt like you needed to wake him up?" She smirked down at her fellow officer as Judy shot her an angry look. "Don't look at me, I already know about your plan."

"What plan?" Trigger asked.

Judy sighed. "Yes, I was just getting to that," she answered. "Well, getting straight to it, since Nick and James both got put on medical leave for tomorrow-"

"Medical leave my furry tail," James grumbled. "That implies I get to choose what to do tomorrow." Nick nodded next to him in agreement.

Ignoring them, Judy continued with her explanation. "But they also need to follow the doctor's orders tomorrow as well, primarily the need to be active and move around even more compared to today-"

"-And hopefully not experience a repeat of today's… side effects," James grumbled again, glaring at the floor in front of him.

Even as Dahlia placed a comforting paw on his shoulder, Judy also cast him a look of sympathy before resuming with her explanation of the plan. "Well, the plan is simple, really." Eyes locked with Trigger's so that he was fully aware that she was talking to him, she then simply asked: "How would you like to go to Point Hind tomorrow?"

Her suspicions about his attitude towards the idea were confirmed when he instantly broke into a look of surprised gratefulness and hopefulness, however only to be quickly hidden by a suspicious glare.

"Judy-" Trigger eyed her warily.

"It's not a trick," Judy reassured him gently. "It's relatively close. Nick and James both need to be out and about tomorrow. It's the woods, so can be rather pretty but also isolated… and we are all aware that you spend far too much time staring at maps of the place," she ignored the sound of Count sniggering again. "Sorry, I didn't want it to come out as condescending. What I mean is… we know that place means a lot to you. So now that we have a great opportunity to go there, why are you hesitating?"

Trigger ignored her as his glare settled on Nick of all mammals. "Wilde, is this some sort of hustle?" he asked warily.

"Nope," Nick answered, completely relaxed. "Just like you, until now, I didn't know what her idea was. Only some vague sort of guessing what it might be related to." He raised the arm with the IV on it. "Just in case you forgot."

With a heavy sigh, Trigger's gaze softened as it settle back to Judy. "Hopps… I want to say that I would love to go… God only knows how much I can take a break from all those drones and the news and… just get a hint of remembering what life used to be for me. But-" his gaze snapped to Dahlia. "Fangmeyer, you- we've already talked about it. Bogo would never approve."

Dahlia grinned back. "What if I told you that he did? Hopps already asked."

Judy nodded as well, reinforcing the answer with the simple gesture.

Trigger again glanced between the two repeatedly, even looking at Nick and James several times in the process. "But… why would he do that?"

Judy hesitated. She had opened her mouth to answer Trigger's question when her mind caught up with her mouth and she realized something: "I- You know, I don't actually don't know why. But he did say yes when I asked." Truth be told, the pilot was correct: Just letting Count and Trigger wander about the city of Zootopia was rather risky for Bogo already, but to let them go somewhere far more isolated? Her sensitive ears pivoted at the sound of talking coming from outside the room. "I guess if you really want to know, you can ask him yourself now," she concluded.

He looked at her with a confused expression for a brief moment until the sound of someone opening the door to their room alerted everyone to what Judy had heard. Sure enough, Chief Bogo, with Doctor Honey close behind him, walked in. Tucked underneath his arms were a pair of brown paper-wrapped packages.

Doctor Honey immediately rushed into the room towards Nick and James, only briefly glancing at Count and Trigger. "So you're the two pilots I've been told about? Don't mind me, I'm here for the officers, and don't worry, I signed the NDA."

"Good, you're all here," Bogo grunted as he glanced over everyone in the room, letting the doctor get about her business of checking up on her two patients. "Wolford, feeling better?"

"Better as can be, all things considered," James replied honestly. "Would love to be able to home, sir, if you don't mind."

Bogo grunted as he started to rummage through the packages he carried over. "That will be up to the doctor to decide. But otherwise, nothing is going to prevent that from my end. What about you, Wilde?"

Nick grinned, answering back in a rather delightful mood. "Just waiting to regain my freedom, sir!"

The chief grunted, but otherwise ignored the remark. "Count, Trigger, homework for you," he instead said, handing over the two packages. As they each took one, he continued to explain. "Word concerning the two of you is that things are about to get moving again. Perhaps it was because you two managed to impress enough mammals with your assistance on the drones in this city, but I just got off the phone with the following news: At the start of the next normal work week," he quickly glanced down at his phone to check the calendar, "so in three days, you will both be going through a series of tests, both theoretical and practical, to test that you haven't lost your piloting skills while here in the ZPD. I haven't been given any specifics yet, but that is also going to take about a week, give or take a couple of days. They'll be checking everything from fitness to whatever knowledge you pilots need to have, that much I do know." He glared at the two pilots, interrupting their process of removing the paper wrapping of the packages. "Personally, your presence here in this precinct, while I realize is not completely unwelcome by some of the officers, is still a strain on time and our mammal resources, not to mention being a legal minefield. I am not going to say that I will kick you out, but I would highly appreciate if you could leave back to your real work on your own accord."

Count grinned back. "You mean get back to flying? You don't even have to ask!" Next to him, even Trigger looked rather excited at the prospect of getting back in the air again.

"Good," Bogo grunted again, then motioned at the packages. "Then study those. Everything going well, we can expect to see you two leave within the end of the month." He then even managed to give them a small smile. "I might normally say congratulations, but I am going to wait until your transfer out is actually finalized."

He was about to speak again, but Count cut him off with a loud ripping noise as he removed the wrapping, revealing a dull blue if rather thick book. A half-second's look at the cover was all it took for his eyes to widen in surprise. "No way- Trigger, look!"

Trigger tore his own book open, immediately also breaking into the surprised, dazed look that Count wore. "Eagles," he muttered to no one in particular, voice filled with awe. "They want to transfer us to eagles." He lifted his book up, showing it off to the other officers in the room.

_F-15C Pilot Operating Pawbook _

Taped onto the cover was also a note that the officers weren't to be allowed to look inside.

Bogo grunted yet again at reading the note. "When you're not using them, I have a locker available to store those," he commented. "Speaking of which, did Hopps here tell you all what she was planning for tomorrow?"

"She just got around to it," James answered with a nod of his head, trying to ignore Doctor Honey as she got ready to pull the line out of his arm. Despite knowing it was coming, he still winced at the slight bite of pain as the needle was removed, then replaced and covered by a soft bandage. Though as soon as it was all done and over with, he let out a soft sigh of relief, rubbing his arm gently. "So, a hike at Point Hind, right?"

"That was what she asked about," Bogo confirmed. "Doctor, does a hike in that location sound suitable to you?"

"Anywhere is fine as long as the two of you move around more than today," Honey answered as she tossed the IV into a bio-hazard bin, only to return to Nick to start removing his. "But there are worse places to go to, I have no doubt about it. For you two though, I'm serious: Get your blood flowing. Time duration is key, too, the longer the better. The results aren't pretty if you don't."

James grimaced. "You mean like what happened to me today?" he asked in a pained voice.

Honey glanced over at him. "Unfortunately no, that was just a side effect of the new pill form of the Nighthowler medication. But if you hike for the entire day tomorrow, there won't be anything to worry about. So unless any of you have a better idea of how to spend your time, I am all for that idea."

Bogo nodded again. "Hopps, Fangmeyer, I want the two of you to make sure that they carry out the doctor's orders in that case. Consider it your assignment for the day." He then turned to the pilots. "Which leads me to you two. Count, what's your idea?"

Count blinked for a moment. "Wait… you're saying I have an option in this?" When Bogo gave a nod of confirmation to his question, Count pondered his prospects for a moment. "Well, in that case… nope." He gave a small grin as the others looked at him with confused expressions. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for not being inside this building any longer than I have to," he went on explaining, "but I'm not the biggest fan of forests. They make good eating, but otherwise are boring to look at. That, and the idea of spending an entire day watching Trigger frolic about on the beach? No thanks!" Nick and James both snorted in laughter, struggling to contain their amusement as Bogo shot them an angry glare at the noise.

"And either way, even if it's purely for selfish reasons," Count continued, "I won't mind letting him be on his own away from me for a day. It's not like I was the one completely failing at crying myself to sleep last night."

"Count, that's mean!" Trigger complained in a low whine.

Count glanced over at him and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Mean or not, still the truth. Also, I can't help but notice that you didn't even bother to deny it, so make of that what you will. Look, everyone can see that you could really use the day off. And I more than aware enough about how much whatever that place means to you, but guess what? I've never been there and don't care much to find out what all the fuss is about. So seriously. Go on and have your fun, I'll be fine waiting out here." He turned back to Bogo. "I can help out some of your officers, or I can bide my time in here, but I'll skip out on the trip."

Bogo stared back at the pilot for a few moments. "If that's what you want, then I won't force you to," he concluded. That left one final mammal in the room. "Trigger, what about you?"

Trigger stared back, still in a slightly dazed look. "W-well, I do want to go," he stammered out, "but… I mean, I didn't think you'll ever allow me to-"

Bogo nodded. "Under normal circumstances, I am inclined to agree. But I have been receiving regular praise on both yours and Count's cooperation and work, especially over the past few days. So when Hopps asked me about letting you join tomorrow, perhaps against my better judgment, I agreed. Call it a well earned day of vacation if you want, but this, as you just pointed out, is a huge risk that I am taking on your behalf. So_ don't you make me regret it_," he added in a low tone of warning. Then, his glare softened. "And while in the call to confirm that you won't be needed tomorrow, I did ask those with the ability to make the call, but unfortunately, the only way you will be able to go is still by wearing the TAME collar. You won't be able to avoid it, I'm afraid."

The coyote's paw instinctively went up to his neck to rub at the spot where the normally collar rested. "I-I understand, sir," he mumbled quietly, slowly lowering his arm back down. "I would still like to go."

Bogo grunted. "Your choice." Glancing at his watch, he shook his head at seeing the time. "I have a lot of other matters I need to attend to. Doctor, anything you need out of me?" he asked, turning his attention to Doctor Honey.

The doctor scanned Nick and James. "No, I got it here," she reassured him. "But while you're still in the room, yes, Officer Wolford. To answer your question, you will be able to go home tonight. Same with you, Wilde. Just remember to call my direct number if you feel anything coming up, and even with whatever you will be planning for tomorrow, I can also no stress enough how much I will recommend that you will get another quick walk in today, both of you. Even if it's just around the block, but if you can get your blood flowing for several minutes more today, that would be even better. And actually, also, one last thing-" She walked over to Trigger and shone a light into his eyes, examining them as well as inspecting the wet smudge on his shirt. "Were you sleeping recently? Drooling perhaps? She asked seriously.

The pilot squirmed in embarrassment as more giggling came from next to him. Leave it for some doctors to get straight to the point. "I- yes, yes I was," Trigger admitted, trying to look away in embarrassment at being in the spotlight like that both figuratively as well as quite literally. As the light again shone in his eyes, he tried to avoid that too due to the discomfort. "I'm fine! Do you mind-?"

"Drooling is a common early indicator of Nighthowler savagery," Honey explained flatly. "And sleeping at two in the afternoon isn't the most common of habits. But if it was just you catching a nap, and drooling in your sleep, then it's nothing. Good to know that gas masks are a preventive solution." Clicking the light off, she grunted in satisfaction before tilting his head to inspect his neck, muttering in disapproval at the matter fur despite Trigger's faint protesting to be left alone. Finally, deciding that she saw enough, she let him be as she stepped away. "So, chief? Anything else you will need out of any of them?"

Shaking his head, Bogo turned to leave. "No, they can return to their own business as soon as you're done with them. I'll also leave you lot to sort out everything you will need for tomorrow. And don't worry about a vehicle, I will have one of the unmarked ones available, so just check by tomorrow before you head out." He got as far as opening the door and almost completely passing through it before he stopped, turning back to Trigger's direction. "There will be four officers watching over you tomorrow, so that is also a reason why I am allowing you to go," he added in another low tone of warning, "but I am serious about it: any complaints I get from them about _anything_, you will regret it." Trigger shrank back even further into his seat to try and avoid his glare. With a final snort, Bogo finally turned and left for good.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Trigger relaxed back in his chair, watching as Doctor Honey also started to gather her things in preparation to leave. Flipping his new book about, he glanced at the cover, even if there wasn't much to see on it. "Well, that's… something." He turned his head, staring at Judy as she grinned back at him. "So no joke? We're really going?" His eyes, if earlier full of suspicion at a con, were starting to expose that hopeful excitement that had so briefly flashed through them when she had asked him about her idea the first time.

"No joke," Judy repeated. "Nick? James? Any objections?"

"Better than anything I could come up with," James reasoned, "so I guess I'm up for it."

"Nick?" Judy frowned slightly as her partner didn't look particularly thrilled with the idea.

Sure enough, Nick glanced back at her with a slight shake of his head. "I have to admit, I am very much a city fox, Carrots," he explained his composure. "I've been in the woods once with Finn for a job, and how can I describe it other than that I found them to be completely boring?" He then broke into a sly grin as she looked disappointed at the possibility of him declining on joining them. "Aw come on now, why the long muzzle? Did I not just say that I was with Finn? He makes everything gloomy! Despite the fact that I am certain I will regret it, you can count me in as well." With a wave of a paw to brush Judy off, he moved it to point accusingly at Trigger. "So make sure that I won't regret it too much, Strikes. I'm being serious here."

The pilot stared back, confused. "What's this got to do with me? I'm not the one in control here. I thought I was only tagging along like you are."

Nick tilted his head in Judy's direction. "I know her. She's totally planning on letting you lead us all tomorrow. Am I right, Carrots?"

Judy nodded sheepishly, surprised at how easily he was able to guess that part. Then again, that was what Nick was quite good at. "I, yeah, I was planning on letting you plan the route out," she admitted to Trigger. "Since you know the area and all."

"Well, okay, I guess." Trigger still didn't look entirely convinced, and one quick look from Judy was all it took for him to elaborate on why he was still hesitating. "it's just that… It's so sudden! There's things to pack and make sure we will have. Food, water, protective clothing. Uh-" he hesitated for a moment. "Well, maybe not so much this time of year, but that's exactly what I'm talking about. You can't just decide to go just like that. You have to prepare, first!" He lifted his arms up in frustration. "And I, for one, don't exactly have anything on me that I will need. Nor any cash to get it with. And, in case it hasn't crossed your minds, but gear for hiking in the woods rather overlaps quite a bit with things that are useful in escape attempts. Right Count?" He glanced over to the other pilot. "Count?"

"Huh? Oh, don't mind me, I'm working here." Count had gone back to working at his uniform, making a point to show that he wasn't participating in the conversation. Even as Trigger stared back with a disappointed expression, he went right back to concentrating on his stitching.

Fangmeyer took a step forwards. "You done yet?"

"I- yeah," Trigger nodded sheepishly, averting his gaze away from the much larger officer.

"Good." As she crossed her arms, Fangmeyer's serious expression changed into a soft smile. "I think you're overthinking it," she said, grabbing his attention back. "I'm not sure about you, Hopps, but I have some things I need to finish up with." She then motioned at Nick and James. "But you two are on leave now, so why don't you take Trigger to the store? It's not like we'll be paying for it anyways, it's going to be reimbursed. Not that it will be a good idea to splurge, but you don't have to squeeze out everything you can out of pennies. And," she turned to her partner. "James, with all of that old clothing and gear at your place, think you can find some backpack for him?"

Wolford nodded. "Sure, I'm certain there's at least one that don't look too glaringly obvious like a school pup's backpack. He can borrow one of those. We can stop by the compound first, it will also give me the opportunity to drop of my dirty uniform in the laundry while we're at it."

Dahlia nodded once more. "Okay then, largest problem solved. So yeah, go to the store, grab some lunch for tomorrow and… I think that will be it, really. It is only a day long trip after all." She looked around the room. "Any questions or objections?"

"I'm still on shift like you are," Judy answered. "I have some paperwork to catch up on." She afforded herself a small grin as Nick looked at her with a grateful surprise – being her, there was no paperwork she needed to finish. Which meant that she just volunteered to at least get started on some of his. "Nick?"

Instantly, his surprised expression vanished, replaced by his default almost bored tone. "Sure, I'm down for a bit of shopping, I guess." He grinned slyly at Fangmeyer. "But only if that will count as that walk I need to do for today."

The tiger groaned. "I'm not the doctor here, Wilde, but I suppose so," she relented. "just as long as you actually walk. And not for too little. Remember, you'll be the one regretting it if it won't be enough for however much movement your body needs."

Nick waved her off. "Bah, don't worry about it. Wolfy and I will make sure that Strikes here will be all suited up for tomorrow. Deal?" He tilted his head towards James.

"Works for me." Wolford stood up from his chair, taking advantage of the ability to stretch his muscles and limbs. "Will need to grab my uniform first though. Wilde, meet you and Trigger at the parking lot then?" He hesitated, looking over to the pilot. "Just remembered that I will also need to grab that collar remote. Sorry about that."

Trigger's paw returned to the side of his neck. "Don't worry about it, it's not your fault." As he was joined by Nick, they bid Judy and Dahlia a good day and left the room. He stopped when he noticed Nick was sporting a wide grin and looking at him with a twinkle in his eyes. "What?"

Nick's grin widened. "_Frolic about on the beach_?" he repeated Count's expression. "What's that all about?"

The pilot frowned, but it was again an expression of annoyance only barely covering the humor beneath it. "Don't you start on me too," he protested, giving Nick a slight shove. "Or I might just make you run the whole thing tomorrow."

"I'd like to see you try!" Nick answered back with a chuckle.

Wolford offered his own advice. "Don't worry, Wilde. I can help him with that! And yes, I would dare!"


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: Getting out of Town**

Judy drove carefully through the darkened, early morning streets. Arriving at her destination, she pulled over at an empty parking space on the side of the road, wincing to herself as she felt her borrowed plain white police cruiser tilt as her two outer wheels hit the side curb and climb up onto it. Stopping with a sudden jerk, she pondered for a moment if her pride would let her get away with her terrible parking, and deciding that she won't be parked for long, shrugged and killed the engine.

Climbing out of the cruiser, she ignored the rather unsightly appearance of her parking, and instead grabbed the box she had placed on the passenger seat before locking the doors and heading inside the mossy, worn-out building that was her goal.

It wasn't her first time over at Nick's place, far from it in fact. Sometimes, he would invite her over to watch a movie or otherwise relax together after a long, hard day at work. Other times, when she would have a ZPD cruiser at her disposal, she would pick him up before work to let them drive in together. But for this specific morning, she had a feeling that he wasn't going to be ready for her now.

Sure enough, knocking on the familiar door that was the entrance to his apartment, she wasn't at all surprised when he didn't answer. Refusing to jump to conclusions, she waited patiently by the door, figuring that if he was only slightly later at getting ready compared to normal, then there is plenty of reasons why he might miss her door knocking. Just in case though, she did press one of her sensitive ears against the door to check if she can hear any movement from inside.

It was completely quiet.

Frowning, Judy knocked on the door again, again waiting to listen in on any response. When there wasn't any yet again, she knocked again. "Nick?" And yet, still no reply from her partner. Feeling that it would be rather rood to stomp his door in, she went for option two: Pulling out her phone, she scrolled to her contacts, found Nick's number, and dialed it.

Her suspicions were confirmed when, a fair number of rings later, a groggy voice answered. "_It's your favorite fox!_" Judy had to suppress laughter at how odd his cheery greeting was clashing with the drowsiness that he wasn't able to hide. "_Carrots, __I know it's you.__W__hat's up?_"

"Nick, I'm outside your door," Judy answered sternly. "You should have been up already."

"_No I shouldn't-_" There was a short pause. "_Crud_. _Hang on, just a sec!"_ He hung up.

Judy didn't care as she heard him shuffling about through the door. Far earlier than she expected, the lock clicked and the door creaked open. "I uh… well good morning to you too," Judy greeted, caught off guard by Nick's rather awkward appearance. "A-Are you all right?"

The fox in front of her was eyeing her with still half-closed eyes, wearing only a set of boxer shorts, and fur spiked out in all sorts of different directions. "You're early," he complained instead, widening the door a little bit more to let her in. "But since you're here already, I'll get ready. Won't take long!" Letting her make herself at home, he vanished into his room to get changed.

Judy walked over to his room's door and stood next to it. "Nick, I made sure to arrive ten minutes later than usual," she informed him through the wood. "You sure you're okay in there?"

The door opened, revealing Nick in a set of loose pants and a sports jersey, looking much rather like how Finnick liked to dress. "Stiff as a board, tired as hell, but sure, still as foxy as ever," he answered simply, nose twitching in the direction of her box. "Is that breakfast?" Taking another sniff, he smiled in such a way that revealed all of his teeth at once. "For _me_? Carrots, you shouldn't have!" His arms reached out for the box she was holing.

Judy took a step back and twisted the box away from his grip. "Nu uh," she warned, "you'll get it in the car. I'm driving."

Nick stared at her for a few moments, blinking. "Fluff, you're in your uniform," he noted.

Judy nodded. "I'm still on a work day here," she told him, "even if you're not."

"But I thought you were taking the whole lot of us to the forest."

Judy grinned at Nick's cluelessness. Especially before he had his morning coffee, he can be quite adorable with his lack of awareness of, well, anything. "I have a set to change back in the car," she answered., lifting the box up closer to entice him. "So, you gonna get ready or not?"

Now it was Nick's turn to grin. "I _a__m_ ready." He pointed at a small backpack by the apartment door. "See? Had it good to go since yesterday."

Judy's jaw dropped, head glancing up and down at his ragged appearance. "You can't go to the station like _that_!" She protested loudly. "At least comb yourself down!"

Nick shrugged. "Why bother? Going to get covered in dirt and dust soon enough anyways. Might as well save the wash for after we're done." When Judy continued to stare at him with a disapproving scowl, he waved her off. "Okay, fine, I'll make myself a little more presentable," he grumbled, shooing her away. "Go get the car ready, I'll be ready in a minute." A moment later. "And make sure that breakfast is still warm!"

Leaving him, she walked back to the car at a slower pace, wondering if anything was up with her partner: Nick was rather famous at how meticulous he was at making sure that he looked his best. So to see him so careless about his own appearance was rather… off-putting. But sure enough, true to his word, Nick was out of his apartment and buckling himself up hardly after Judy herself only got back in. Sure, he didn't look _that_ much better, but better enough. Even as she started the car up, and with a jolt, got all four wheels back on the road to head off to the station, he was already eagerly digging into the breakfast she provided.

His expression of delight only increased when he dug out the contents of the box. "Aww, Carrots, you shouldn't have!"

Staring at the road ahead, Judy felt a pang of disappointment that she had to concentrate on driving, only being able to sneak a quick glance over at Nick. "Figured you wouldn't mind having the extra special blueberry muffins," she answered back, "since you're on medical leave and all, so don't expect something like this more often." She giggled when he said something in reply, voice completely muffled with food to the point that she wasn't able to make out what he was saying. "Eat your breakfast and don't talk, Nick!" she playfully scolded. "You are so sometimes like a little kit, I mean seriously!"

Agreeing to that, the rest of the drive was completed in silence apart from the occasional noise of Nick enjoying his breakfast. Parking out front, Judy was able to confirm that Nick's movements were indeed noticeably stiffer and slower compared to his usual as he got out of the car to follow her inside the precinct. Once through the large doors, she barely got to bid Clawhauser a good morning before Nick was veered away from her and back towards the medical wing.

"Don' you worry about me, Carrots," he reassured her with his usual smug grin and a wink. "I'll be outta there in no time!"

"Sure, Nick! I'll hold you to that!" But even as he wandered off down the hall, her own spirits sank as she saw his ears and tail both fall as soon as he thought that she wasn't looking. Sometimes, it her fox really did get on her nerves. Sure, he liked to play 'cool fox' all the time and pretend that nothing bothered him, but Judy knew, as she watched him shuffle down the hall, that Nick was getting rather sick of heading down the direction of the precinct's medical offices. A part of her also wondered if dealing with the nighthowler recovery really was as simple as he made it out to be, or if he was hiding that too from her.

Well, Judy decided, if Nick wasn't going to talk, the James would. Or, at the very least, if not to her, then certainly to Dahlia once Judy talked to the tiger officer about it. Hopefully though, after a nice day at the beach, they all wouldn't have to worry about that any longer. With this realization, her mood lifting back up, she hefted her backpack that she brought with her from the car and decided to go and find James and Dahlia. She can get changed after they all gather up and get set to leave.

Her new plan, though, ended as soon as she strolled through the precinct kitchen, spotting Count and Trigger at one of the tables, strangely enough joined by Agents Savage and Winters. Count, for his part, was lazily munching from a bowl of breakfast, looking over Trigger's shoulder with a bored expression. On the next chair over, Trigger was frowning at a stack of papers in his paw, the other clutching onto a steaming mug of coffee like his life depended on it. The coyote was sporting a pair of earbuds, and she could faintly hear the beat of a song leaking out into the room. "Morning everyone," she greeted, "what's with the paperwork?"

Even through his music, Trigger reacted, but with only a simpler answer of a grunt and shrug. Instead, it was Savage who answered instead. "A report from the office. Some calculations on what we think is up with that underground complex you stumbled into. I just wanted Trigger here to look over some of the equations that are way over my head."

Judy raised a curious eyebrow. "Um, okay… And what would that be, if I may ask? And what does Trigger have to do with this?" Even as she asked the questions, she noticed how the pilot continued to ignore her as he flipped the page silently, sipping out of his cup without saying a word, though despite the casual nature of his actions, he still continued to sport the expression of anger and frustration.

"Well, Winters, feel free to add anything in, but without revealing what we are not allowed to," Jack spoke plainly as he tried to answer her question. "We fear that whoever is running the show in that underground maze you found is trying to create some sort of fancy new Nighthowler aerial bomb. Just a guess and definitely do not quote me on it."

As Skye nodded in approval of the explanation, Judy winced, unsure if it was due to the implications of what he just said, or because of how casually he said it. Either not noticing or simply ignoring her reaction, he then added. "The good news is that our eggheads believe that the amount of Nighthowler needed for an effective air-delivered weapon requires a too-large container to fit effectively either in or on a drone. But that's where I wanted Trigger to take a look at the numbers, since like I said, I have no idea what they mean, and as long as he's here with us, we can put him to work on it."

Turning her attention to said pilot, Judy couldn't help but ask "And how's that going?"

With a frustrated sigh, Trigger turned another page over before looking up at the others. "Look, while I see nothing obviously wrong here, it's not like I was working on these equations for more than..." he glanced at a wall clock, "twenty minutes now. If you want my proper opinion, which I must emphasize is _not_ an expert opinion, I will need at least an entire day with this, minimum. Equations I will need to look up, look into the base assumptions, I mean, this is just ridiculous..." he fell quiet after a heavy sigh as he went back to reading through the papers. "And of course this is all completely useless if they simply decide to build the bomb as big as it needs to be and shove it into a larger plane..."

Judy eyed him wearily. "Is that why you're so tense? Worried about-?" She could understand being worried about it. Just thinking about widescale use of nighthowlers was making herself start to feel anxious.

"I'm not tense!" Trigger snapped, only to give up with a quiet groan as he flipped another page over. "Okay, well maybe I am. A little. Just forget it."

"We don't actually think that's going to be the case though," Skye added quickly, moving the conversation along. "Too much effort went into shoving that drone, even if it ended up being just a mockup, underground. And to simply place nighthowlers into a larger container? No, I think whoever was running the lab down there was trying, and luckily for us, failing to make it work."

Jack nodded. "Damned shame you failed to capture that mouse you discovered, would have helped us learn about who's doing it all," he said, not noticing the nervous if slightly angered looks he received from both Jame and Nick for his comment. "But too late about that now. The important thing is that we get our calculations right and figure out if there's a reason to be worried or not."

Judy's breath hitched. "And if there is a reason?" she asked quietly. "To be worried, I mean."

This time, it was Count who answered. "Nuclear weapons exist, Hopps. No different than biological or chemical WMDs in this case. Even if we're wrong, this is no different than any other bomb that can destroy a city in one go. You'll have to be insane to use it, mad even, and I don't think Urusia's going to dare angering the rest of the world just to bomb us. They haven't done it yet, and for that matter, have made it part of their PR justification for the war in avoiding doing exactly that. You know, part of their 'our drones only attack military targets and reduce civilian casualties' and all of that nonsence. Besides, even if-" he stopped, interrupted from Trigger slamming a fist onto the table with a loud _thud_.

"Can we… not talk about that?" his teeth were clenched tightly, breathing deep and heavy. "Like, _ever_?" He flipped the page over, discovering that it was the last one and shoved the stack aside, still glaring at it as though he wanted to light the stack on fire with his gaze.

"Say, Trigger, didn't you plan on going to Point Hind today?" Skye asked randomly, changing the subject for them.

The pilot looked up with a jerk of his head, eyes wider than just moments before. "Y-yeah, but I guess I'm going to be busy today. So-" his gaze fell back to the stack of papers, a longing look in his eyes as his gaze remained unfocused. "...Might as well forget about going."

Jack let out a short grunt. "Simple question, really. Did you, or did you not spot any obvious errors anywhere just now?"

Trigger tiled his head in confusion. "Uh, well, no... But I hardly even looked at it! Like I said, I'll need at least-"

"Uh, you're a combat pilot, Trigger," Jack cut him off, sounding rather confused at the pilot's reaction. "And I heard plenty of times that you're a really good one. I don't know about your abilities as a aerospace engineer, but I doubt they're anywhere as developed as your flying. Plus, we've got more than enough capable mammals working at this even as we speak right now. How do you think we got even these equations written up after only a day? I only wanted your opinion, not your professional assessment." After a short pause, he spoke again. "Did you really think that I wasn't aware that you were going to be busy today? Bogo had to run the idea past us before letting you go free outside Zootopia. That's also why Agent Winters and I arrived early, so that we can catch you before you left." Jack's muzzle broke into a grin as he jerked his head at Trigger's chest. "That, and I've been around personally long enough to know that Chief Bogo would not have tolerated your choice of shirt."

Trigger gaze wandered down, but he otherwise didn't say anything, although his flattened ears gave away his embarrassment.

Judy too, stared for a moment, somehow only now realizing that sure enough, Trigger was sporting one of Wolford's borrowed shirts rather than the usual ZPD gear that he normally wore. How she didn't recognize the brightly colored shirt over the standard ZPD gray was beyond her, but it did tell her, that at least when he had decided on what to put on this morning, Trigger was still planning to go on the trip like they had planned.

"Well, it's just that I thought..." Trigger stammered, interrupting her thoughts, "I mean… with the war stalled as it is... This might be a new Urusian weapon they're building here," he motioned at the papers as he spoke. "It doesn't matter what I _want_ to do. It's what I _should_ be doing. And… I understand that you won't let me hop into a fighter and fly off, since that's what I'm god at, but I can't just sit around and do _nothing_! Or, well, going to the coast like I wanted to. But again… With these drones… it's the least I should be doing right now."

"And you'll be wasting yours and our time," Jack answered back calmly. "Trigger, "I've run through this through several mammals yesterday. Letting you out of the city is a risk we're willing to take. Okay, you'll have to wear that blasted collar, granted, but still. You want to help? Go and use the day to clear your mind so that when we send you back to fight, you'll be able to do it to the best of your ability."

"But-"

"-But nothing," Count butted in, setting his bowl down. "I know you're going to hate me for it,but it's about time you heard it: Staying here and stressing over some formulas isn't going to be helping anyone, least of all yourself." He ignored the glare of venom he received from his fellow pilot. "Think about it: how many others would kill to be in the position you're in right now? And I'm not even talking about our squad, but all of Ocelotia? You survived being shot down. _As a passenger_. By all accounts, we both should be dead, pulled out of the ocean and sent home in bags like the crew that flew us here. And you can't exactly be effecting the dead and buried, now, can you? Yet, despite that, how are you spending your time? Sulking and whining." He motioned at his neck where wearing his TAME collar left his fur matted and dull. "I admit, I like it here, even with this collar rubbish. But you? You're now not much better than our first night here, I would argue. If anything, even worse, if the last two nights were anything to go by." He leaned over the table, getting his muzzle right up close to Trigger's tooth-baring snarl. "So call me selfish, but I want my flight wing to be capable of flying through a tunnel for no better reason than that Urusia thought to hide a squad of planes inside a mountain. Someone who flies between cliffs through a heavy thunderstorm taking out anti-air and doesn't so much as complain about it. And I cannot stress how much I doubt you'll be able to do that the way you are now. Do us all a favor, then, okay? I want Three Strikes back, not this whiny, whimpering pathetic excuse of a ka-yote in front of me. So go and fix your nerves first. Only then we can talk about everything else."

A moment of silence followed as Trigger continued to glare at Count silently, fists clenched tightly. Without a word, he stood up and walked away, roughly shoving Count with a shoulder on his way out. In his haste to leave, the earbuds were torn out of his ears, but not before the device they were connected to was sent flying off the table. Without so much of a glance back at it, Trigger stomped right past a startled Nick, flanked by Wolford and Fangmeyer, who had to swerve out of the path of the angry coyote.

"What was that?" Dahlia asked, breaking the awkward silence that permeated the room.

"Don't worry, he'll come around!" Count answered casually, waving a hoof in the air. Then his voice lowering, he muttered, "just give him a couple of minutes to cool his head."

"Count, that was really mean, what you just did," Judy mumbled, her own ears flattened to the back of her head, though with her, because of anger and disappointment. Truth be told, a part of her was telling her that what Count had said wasn't actually _wrong_. And the realization that she too agreed with him, even if only a little, was rather troubling to her. Still there was one part of it that she disagreed with completely. "You should have at least not have been so rude. Kindness goes a lot way. I mean, you two flew together!" A par of paws placed themselves on her shoulders, and she looked up to a smirking Nick as he held her in place with a firm but gentle grip. It was the same smirk that he wore when he didn't want others to read his emotions, and this time, it was working on her as well.

"I don't do 'kind', Hopps," Count answered as he picked up Trigger's dropped music player. Glancing at the screen, he frowned in disapproval at whatever song was still playing on it, then setting it down on the table with a shake of his head. "None of us do. Kindness gets you killed."

Judy's jaw dropped in just how casually he said this last part. Especially since she was certain that a certain pilot who had just stormed out of the kitchen was living proof that Count's lousy attitude was wrong. But as she tried to squirm away, she felt Nick's grip on her shoulders tighten, preventing her from escaping.

"Okay, just something I gotta know more about!" Nick exclaimed. "But did I not overhear something about Strikes flying through a _tunnel_?" Next to him, James snickered at his excited questioning.

If she didn't know him better, Judy would have scolded Nick for being so clueless to a serious situation. But she did know better, that Nick's still firm grip on her was his way of keeping her from leaving to go after Trigger, and his oblivious change of subject was a deliberate method of easing the tension in the room instead of letting it continue to escalate.

Count grinned, Judy noting that it was a genuine, prideful gesture rather than an ironic one. "Sure has! Our AWACS just about lost it when his radar signature vanished into the ground. What was it that he called him? ...Right, 'drooling idiot', that was the term! Wish I was able to see his face when Trigger's signature emerged on the other side of the mountain." His grin faded into annoyance when Jack joined in with far less enthusiasm over the achievement, a frown on his own muzzle. "What?"

Savage shrugged. "How can I put it politely? ...What kind of pilot flies through a tunnel? I want to call it reckless, but that's too light a word. I'm honestly struggling to think of a way to describe how, well, _stupid_ something like that is. And if he's your wing, why didn't you stop him?" Savage's frown deepened even more. "I can see now how he earned the name 'dumbass'. Pull off a stunt like that in our air force? Even if you don't crash and somehow survive, that's it! Flying career over. Grounded for life."

Count rolled his eyes. "Well good thing for us all that we're not you Animalians. All the money and equipment, but also all of the rules. Besides, I just told you: Urusia had a squad of fighters parked underground. Tunnel was big enough to fly through. Well, for Trigger at least. His Fishbed's quite smaller than my Flanker. I wouldn't dare to fly like he did, I'll give you that. As for stopping him? That's not how Four-Four-Four works. Figured you would know that after having just been at our base."

Jack simply threw his arms up into the air in disbelief. "Whatever. I do feel that the more I learn about your squadron, the less I actually understand it." Lowering his arms back down to the table, he finally glanced at the cops surrounding him. "Glad to see all of you up and about this morning. How are you two feeling?"

"Doc wants us leaving as soon as we can," James answered with a nod of his head. "Woke up with this morning with sore muscles. Doc says it can easily change into rather painful cramping, if I wait too long. And I'll prefer not to go through that." He glanced over to Nick and Judy. "What about you, Wilde?"

Nick flashed a half-grin, half-grimace. "Afraid it's the same on my end, as Carrots here can attest to." Glancing down at the bunny, he flashed her a quick wink, his paws loosening their grip so that he can use them to pat her shoulders instead. "Would still be in bed if she didn't pull me out of my apartment. You know how it goes, blueberry bribes." He jerked his thumb behind him. "But really, what was up with Strikes just now? I thought he was coming with us."

Judy also glanced in that direction, but when she went to go after wherever Trigger had stormed off to, Nick's still firm grip again prevented her from moving. Frowning, she had to give him credit, for as much as she was learning how to read him, he was also getting very good at predicting her own actions.

"Good, that's good then," Jack mumbled half-heartedly, his thoughtful expression indicating that his mind was busy with other matters. "I told Bogo, but it really was a failure to let the ZPD know about that place on our end..." Skye muttered something into his ear, and his brows lowered into deeper thought. "Right, yeah, perhaps we really should be letting you all go then and not waste your time anymore. Although, Count! You, you're not going, correct? We were hoping to use you for today again if you aren't busy."

The pilot let out a shrug. "I already had enough of, well, wherever you are planning on going to just from how excited Trigger was getting about it all last night," he commented, "this morning too, until you came along and ruined it. Who knows, though. He might already be over it and realizing that he was simply being stupid again."

Jack was busy quickly searching through his phone, but it didn't prevent him from countering Count's comment with one of his own. "Neither I nor Winters ever mentioned that we needed him, that was all just a misunderstanding. Besides, last I checked, I wasn't the one who completely insulted him right in his face."

With a scoff, Count cast Savage an unrepentant grin. "I think of it more as not embellishing with unnecessary flourish of wording. Gets the same point across, leaves out room for error in understanding just because I'm trying to 'protect feelings'. As I did say, it _was_ what Trigger needed to hear."

"This your plane?" Whether Jack payed any attention to Count's last comments or not, he was no holding his phone out with a picture on it.

Count squinted as he leaned over to look at the screen. "Sure, that's my Su-33. Does it have a single line on its vertical stabilizers? Can't see in this picture."

"It did. Couldn't get a good angle with the camera to capture it all," Jack commented, handing over his phone so that the officers could see the picture for themselves.

"Then it's mine. What's it got to do with anything?" Count asked.

Jack shrugged nonchalantly. "Not much, I was more curious about something else." He held out a paw towards Judy, who had his phone at the moment. "May I?" Switching over to a new picture, he showed it to Count again. "And is this Trigger's plane?"

Count squinted again, and broke into a grin. "Sure is! Took you long enough to figure it out. Thought the three lines on it would be a dead give away." Without even asking, he gave the phone over to James to have a look.

Judy blinked, feeling stupid as the phone passed by her way. She knew that the whole 'Three Strikes' nickname was one given by the Urusians, as based on the several articles she read about it said. But it never occurred to her for some reason that, after seeing the thee lines splattered over what passed as Trigger's photo ID, that those same lines were painted much more visibly on his plane. Really silly of her. As she stared at the picture, deep in thought, she almost missed Jack's next comment to Count.

"That's an outdated design. Your plane is getting old enough to be retired soon, and last I checked, Flankers were designed to replace Mig-21s. You really want to tell me that that museum relic is what Trigger flew in?"

"If you want to insult Laika," Trigger's unamused voice answered from the entrance to the precinct's kitchen, "then you're talking to the wrong guy. Besides, she's not the same plane your grandpa would have gawked at. She's got new engines that no one would have even dreamed about back then. Wings and skeleton are all modern alloys, hell, even modern avionics. Just about only the airframe layout is old." He walked over to the group, but not before shooting Count a nasty glare and an elbow to the ribs for good measure. Snatching his music player back off the table, he still wasn't done lecturing Jack about his fighter. "Laika'll give newer jets a run for their money, yes, including does designed specifically to replace her." Letting out a long sigh, he stared back at Jack directly in the eyes. "Don't discount her just on her looks. And if anything else, I'm still alive. That should tell you enough alone about what she can do." With a huff, he sat down across the table from the hare, arm reaching out for the papers he left behind. "Now, about that stack of papers of yours..."

Jack stared back blankly. "You're not serious about still going over those, are you?"

Trigger flinched as he pulled his arm back ever so slightly. "I… No, I guess not," he admitted. "I guess what I really wanted to know was, um..." he glanced at the papers again, his earlier nervousness and frustration from earlier returning. "It will take me a long time to get through all of this properly-"

Count groaned as he rubbed his forehead. "Trigger, we've literally just been through this-"

"-Which is why I recognize that I will in fact just be wasting my time with this." Trigger finished in a strained tone. "Please, Count, for once, just... shut up for a moment. So yes, after your, um, 'helpful' commentary to me, I just needed to get away from you. Although that did give me a few minutes to think about it all, and, well, I guess I realized it. That if I stay here and work at these, there's a very tiny chance that I might find something. Very tiny, I doubt I'll actually find anything. But if I go on the trip like I wanted to, like we planned to last night..." his gaze shifted briefly towards Judy's direction before diverting to the ground. "It might be just what I will need to clear my head up," he mumbled. "Which is far more important for when we get back in the air. It's just asking to get shot down to go up while..." his gaze wavered at Judy's direction again, "...tense."

"It's your call, Trigger, I'm not going to force you either way with this," Jack said calmly. "But if you want to go, you might as well leave now before it gets too late."

A loud metallic squeal echoed across the room as Trigger's chair was shoved quickly away from the table. "All right, let's go then," he announced, a grin breaking out on his muzzle. One that faded as soon as his gaze crossed paths with the second pilot in the room. "Count, I know you didn't want to earlier, but you in or..?"

Count scoffed rather loudly. "Nah, I don't think so. Besides, I think I tortured you today enough already. Seriously, go and have some fun, Trigger! You really do need it."

A hint of the grin returned. "T-Thanks, Count." He scanned his gaze across the officers standing around the table. "Judy? You're in your uniform. You're not bailing on us, are you?"

Ignoring Nick's amused snort at someone else pointing out the very same thing he did when he first saw her, Judy just grinned back at the pilot, grabbing her backpack again. "I'm going, silly coyote! Just need a minute to get changed and I'll be ready." The movement caused the car keys in her pockets to jingle, and the noise gave her an idea. Pulling the keys out, she gave then to Fangmeyer. "Dahlia, why won't you all go and get settled in the car? White unmarked cruiser number four. I'll join you as soon as I'm ready."

"Sure thing, Hopps. Wilde, I'm assuming you're good? James?"

"My stuff's already in the car," Nick answered quickly.

Wolford also nodded. "I'm packed as well. Just need to grab it from my office. Go ahead, I'll meet you at the car."

Dahlia turned to the remaining member of their party. "Trigger?"

The pilot blinked away from whatever he was thinking about. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I just need to grab it from the… um, cell. Then it's just a stop by Bogo's office to grab the collar, but otherwise, sure, I'm ready. Let's go!" Without hesitating, he turned and left the kitchen.

But before he could turn the corner, Count called out to him. "Yo, Trigger! Question for you! Can I tell the Urusians that Three Strikes listens to cheesy eighty's pop?"

Trigger stopped at the doorway, ears folded flat on his head. Judy was worried for a moment that he was going to react negatively again as he pulled the music player out and glanced at it. But to her surprise, he turned his head with a grin on his muzzle. "Sure, go ahead! Who knows, might make getting shot down by me all that more embarrassing! You can go and tell them that I rather like my Peter Gerbil!" Without bothering to wait for a reply, he vanished out the door.

Nick frowned playfully, but didn't feel like chasing the pilot across the station. "There's nothing wrong or embarrassing about classic Gerbil. Whatever, I'll wait at the car, Fluff," he told Judy. "See you there!"

With everyone dispersing, the officers bid Count and the ZIA agents a goodbye and left the kitchen.

Only a few short minutes later, Judy, now dressed in a plain gray ZPD shirt and light pants that was her workout getup, emerged out of the precinct front doors and hopped over to the waiting car. As the others had said, they were all already waiting inside, with James and Dahlia occupying the front seats, and so she slid into the back row, placing herself in between Nick and Trigger.

"All set?" As soon as Judy was buckled up, Dahlia started up the engine and set off. Since she was still in the parking lot, she allowed herself the opportunity to glance all the way behind her at the passengers in the back seats. "Say, Hopps, Trigger was asking about being allowed to drive," she informed with a smirk.

"I, uh, well, you allowed me to drive yesterday," the pilot tried to argue, suddenly embarrassed and finding out that adjusting his shirt to hide the uncomfortably familiar collar around his neck was what he would much rather be doing instead. On his head, his ears poked through a ZPD baseball cap.

"Well yeah, but, yesterday was a bit of an emergency," James answered back with a huff. "So Hopps, I was thinking of perhaps allowing him a go on the way back, where we still won't be either on the highway or these busy streets." With his seat between them, he wasn't able to see Trigger grumble in complaint from behind.

Something about this rubbed Judy completely the wrong way. "But you don't even have a license!" she argued, turning towards the pilot. "It's illegal!"

"I have one back in Ocelotia!" Trigger tried to argue back, but backed away from that angle of attack when he realized that this rationale wasn't going to work on Judy. "And… Well, you're all cops. It's like an escort, isn't it?"

Nick snorted. "So why are you asking us for permission to break the law? We can always haul your tail straight back to your cell right now if you want. Save us some trouble." Despite the harsh words he used, his tone made it more than plain that he was joking.

Whether he got Nick's humor or not, Trigger was about to argue again when Judy stopped him with a raise of her paw.

"Let's talk about it when we actually are on the way back," she said firmly. "We hardly even started driving yet, so how about some peace and quiet for the drive?"

"Thank you, Hopps," Dahlia concurred from the front.

With this matter settled, and the pilot returning his attention to the music player he had brought from the kitchen, Judy pulled her own device out. The very same music player she brought with her when she had first arrived to the city. The battery was rather worse for the wear by now, and set far sooner than before, but it would be enough for both the drive out and back.

Nick noticed her fiddle with the player, and smirked as he watched her place the first bud into her ear.

"What?" Judy asked with a roll of her eyes. "Can't a girl listen to music on a road trip?" Before he could answer, she got an idea before she put on the second of the two earbuds. Wiping it down briefly against her shirt, she offered it to him instead.

Evidently, this act somehow managed to completely catch him off guard due to how Nick's eyes widened in surprise. And honestly, Judy almost expected him to decline the offer, if only due to how much hew loved to complain about her music preferences when they worked together. Instead, once he came over his initial shock, Nick's usual sly expression returned as he took the offered earbud and adjusted it into his ear. "Sure, I'm up for it," But as Judy started to search through the menu on her, he quickly realized a mistake of his and so added very quickly, "but I also reserve the right to veto any song you play." He gave a wink to Trigger when he noticed the pilot staring at the little conversation from his corner of the car.

"Hey, as long as you two back there don't start fighting over the music, you can listen to whatever you feel like," Dahlia answered from the driver's seat as she drove through Zootopia's morning traffic. "But I will have you know that I have control of the car's audio system." As if to prove her point, she switched on the radio and dialed in one of the local stations. Luckily for Nick and Judy, she did lower the volume to a level where it didn't fight too much the music coming out of the earbuds.

Ignoring the new source of sound coming from the speakers, Judy immediately scrolled for her _Gazelle_ section, knowing that while Nick didn't actually like her at first, he had warmed up to her songs after the now almost three years of exposure to her sound. And it wasn't just from Judy herself that he got used to Gazelle: Clawhauser made sure that everyone at the precinct started to like her, whether they wanted to or not. Except that Trigger managed to slip through the cracks so far, she realized, remembering just how distraught the receptionist had been at finding out that someone was able to be as clueless about Zootopia's most famous pop singer. Especially by someone who claimed to have lived close to Zootopia for at least part of his life.

Judy was even about to offer her other earbud to Trigger exactly so that he can no longer claim not to know about Gazelle, but two issues caused her to change her mind about that: First, she herself didn't want to give up her portion of her music player, added to the fact that Trigger was already occupied with the one he brought over from the kitchen, wherever he managed to find it originally. And second, probably most importantly, was that the cable was simply not long enough to reach across the seating to both Nick and Trigger at the same time.

So with a shrug, she decided that the pilot would have to learn what the big deal with Gazelle was at a later time. And truth be told, she was finding that she was rather enjoying the drive, sitting next to Nick as they actually got to focus on the music and the scenery around them.

As they drove on one of the many bridges leading out of Zootopia, Judy saw that they were about to drive onto _the_ Zootopia Bridge, the one that appeared on many a tourist token, picture, and poster. And, ironically enough, because it lead in a different direction than the one she needed to take to get to Bunnyburrow, it was her first time on it too. But as she looked at the scenery around them, and how suddenly the over-developed concrete jungle that was Zootopia gave way to a much more haphazard mix of city and countryside, she couldn't help but notice that she wasn't the one more transfixed at what was outside. In fact, her partner looked like he just entered another country.

"Um, Nick, have you ever been outside of Zootopia? As in, _ever_?"

Taking his eyes away from the window, he smirked down at her. "Nope. Told you, I'm a city fox! Zootopia through and through!"

Judy crossed her arms. "But you said that you've been to a forest with Finnick!"

Again with the smirk. "Well, yeah. Hoofdale park, which I shouldn't have to remind you is one hundred percent within Zootopia's city limits."

She let out a huff at his simple explanation. "I'm going to have to make you come with me home to Bunnyburrow one of these days," she muttered, "I can't even believe I haven't taken you there yet."

"I would like to think that I saw enough of those farms through your phone," Nick countered as he returned his attention back to staring out the window. "But if you want to, make sure it's during blueberry season. Otherwise, I will object to it. ...Also, skip this song please." His paw reached down to Judy's music player, and with a practiced flick, he did just that. But once done with the action, he didn't bother to remove his paw from the device, and by extension, Judy's own paw that was also holding it.

Whether he meant to do that on purpose or not, she didn't know. But the act alone was enough to raise a certain amount of heat to the tips of her ears, and she forced them to lower behind her head in a vain attempt to hide this fact from him. Glancing quickly around the car, she felt a wave of relief sweep over her as she saw that Nick was the only one that was able to notice either way.

Trigger was even more absorbed with staring out of his own window than Nick was, Dahlia was busy driving the car, and James was taking advantage of the opportunity given by the car ride, passed out in the passenger's seat, and snoring softly.

For the next several set of songs, the two just sat like that, Nick again going back to watching out the window. Judy herself alternating between also looking out the window, to looking at her partner. Unfortunately, glancing at him did not help with removing the heat from her ears, nor the queasy feeling that perhaps she was doing something that she really shouldn't be. Finally, to her relief, Nick removed his paw as he shuffled and adjusted himself in his own seat, puffy tail sliding out from where it had been pressed into the cushions. With the rest of his body mostly angled towards the window, it meant that the appendage had nowhere else to go but to the interior of the car.

And right onto Judy's lap.

Both of their ears perked up, two sets of eyes locking into one another as they both stared at each other with embarrassed expressions.

"Sorry, my oopsie," Nick quickly muttered as he removed his tail from her. "Don't worry about it, Carrots, I'll keep it away."

"No, Nick, it's okay," Judy hurriedly explained. "I… uh, don't mind." Perhaps it was the wrong set of words she wanted to use, but she had to say _something_. When Nick didn't answer, she tried to instead change the subject completely, using the fact that the town they were now driving through started to give way quickly to the untamed green wilderness of a forest. "So Nick, for a city fox, you seem to be awfully transfixed by a bunch of trees," she teased, unable to help herself from poking fun at just how adorable he looked, staring out the window like a kit. "Or does Big City Fox secretly want to live in the countryside?"

With a grunt, he was able to look away from the view outside and instead at her. "Is it different to the city?" he asked back at her with his trademark smirk, "yes, yes it is."

Crossing her arms, Judy let him go back to staring out the window in peace. Truth be told, while the greenery here was too different from Bunnyburrow to actually remind her of home, she had to admit that being surrounded by so much plan life was a rather relaxing position to be in. And one that she was finding rather rare, living in Zootopia and only getting to very rarely occasionally take a day or two off to visit her folks back on the farm. So even as her Gazelle playlist ended and started over again, she let it play on without bothering to change the music. Nick didn't seem to mind, and neither did she, content on letting the music continue uninterrupted as she two of them enjoyed the simplicity of the car ride.

And even though unlike James, while Judy didn't fall asleep, she was still completely caught by surprise when Dahlia's voice broke the relative silence around them.

"Trigger, phone says we're here. Which is the best place to park?"

When there was no answer, Judy glanced over at the pilot. But no, he wasn't asleep, and was very much awake and still staring outside, hardly blinking.

"_Trigger_?"

"Huh, what?" Ears flicking with annoyance at being addressed, he tore his gaze from the window and to the front seats. "Oh, uh, a little bit more forwards and to the left," he explained, both voice and expression in a daze. "It will be closest to us when we finish."

Nick yawned loudly as he pulled out his earbud, handing it back to Judy. "So this is the coast?" he asked, ironically motioning out the widow at the parked cars, and more importantly, lots of grass and trees, but no water to be seen. "Where's the _beach_?"

"It's that way," Trigger explained, pointing at a wide dirt path heading into the trees. Several mammals were already strolling on it in both directions, though most away from the cars. "We'll be coming back from there."

"And what do you mean by 'going back from there'?" James added, jaws open wide in the middle of his own yawn at he rubbed his eyes to wake up from his nap. "Where we heading to out?"

Trigger pointed in a different direction, at a much smaller path snaking up a hillside and also vanishing into a large group of trees. "We start by going up there."

Nick's eyes rolled towards the back of his head as he followed the hill all the way up to the horizon well above them. Not only was it quite taller than even Zootopia's central mountain, even worse, there was also no balloon or automated gondola going to the top in sight. "Strikes, are you really suggesting that we go all the way up there? On _foot_?"

Trigger grinned sheepishly, tilting his head down to hide behind his hat. "It's not that high," he protested. "And it gives the best view in the park. You'll like it, trust me!"

Nick grunted in disapproval. "I believe that's the first time you asked us to 'trust you'," he countered. Gaze lowing down to Judy, he smirked again. "And whose idea was it to let Strikes dictate where we're going anyways?"

Judy looked away, making a show of gathering her backpack in preparation for the journey. "I have no idea what you're implying, Nick."

Nick took another glance up to the ridge line above them, suppressing an urge to whine at just how tall it was. "Carrots," he sighed, "why do I get a feeling that I'm going to hate you by the end of today? Why do we have to go up _there_?"

"Because the doctor told you so," was Trigger's smug reply.

Nick's eyes bulged. Since when did... how did Count put it only slightly more than an hour ago? Oh, right: Since when did the whiny, whimpering pathetic excuse of a kayote become so cheeky? Well, if he wants to talk the talk… "Whatever you say, Strikes. Since I'm not actually _that_ sick, if you think I can't handle it... Why are we still in the car everyone? Let's go!"


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20: A Walk in the Woods**

Nick groaned silently as the trail took yet another sharp turn in on itself, still climbing up to that stupid ridge line which simply refused to finally do him a favor and show up. It wasn't that the gradual climb was getting to him – Bogo's fitness requirements for all beat cops meant that even now, at about half an hour into the hike, he hardly felt winded at all, despite it all being uphill. But he meant every word that he told Judy about being a city fox, and the endless trees and bushes that blocked off any interesting views were starting to get on his nerves.

But helping him pass the time, ironically enough, he was busy telling the others the story of the one other time that he had been inside a forest. Or a forest park within Zootopia, close enough. And not that Wolford or Trigger could correct him about that, those two were off in front having their own rather heated discussion about something else completely.

"...and while we were able to quite convincingly convince them that we knew about the lumber, getting a hold of a large supply of it was a whole different problem," Nick was explaining, "which, among other issues, also required yet another government issued license. And, yes, naturally Finn and I both applied for, and waited, for them to arrive before we started the trade. We sold the wood, we received the funds, and after all was said and done..." Nick frowned at the memory. "ironically enough, with all of our effort on avoiding actually breaking any laws, we ended up basically being _too_ on the level. The returns were too low. Wasn't worth the effort, especially the extra hours we put in to see how to cut corners, which get this: I read last year that one of the main suppliers got fined heavily for breaking a few of the more troublesome import laws." He flashed a pleased grin at both Judy and Fangmeyer. "Guess who hadn't done that! Only yours truly! Should have been there, Stripes!"

Judy wasn't the only one to roll her eyes, although with her it was more of a mild disappointment at herself. She had asked everyone to go by their first names for today, because as she explained it, "it would be too weird. We're out on a pleasant walk, not work." While the others agreed to the request, well, Trigger was still Trigger, but that was expected. But Nick… was also simply being Nick. He was never capable of using anyone's name, first or last, anywhere it seemed.

Dahlia let out a huff as Nick cited yet another set of laws, and how he and Finnick were able to work around them, if only barley. "Nick, if you were so clever and active at avoiding breaking the law, why work so hard to look like you broke it all the time?" While her tone was even slightly hostile with the disapproval towards his previous 'career' choices, there was no mistaking that she was also taking pleasure at listening to his story.

Nick winked at her as he shrugged. "Well, among other things, I never did quite report my earnings properly, as Carrots found out. But even then it was more of a appeal to the customer base than anything. I thought back then, that if a fox can only make money by catering to crooks, then they have to think of you as one." He grinned sheepishly as Judy threw him a dirty look. "Hey, I changed now, you know that! Speaking of crooks though, kinda ironic, when you think about it: That the legal timber importers are willing to break the laws when the low-life hustler won't. But yeah, that was why Finnick and I had to make a trip to Hoofdale park. Not the most exciting place, and the lesson I learned there was: When time is money, the last place you want to be is where people go to slow down." He shrugged and motioned with his paws at all the trees around them, tapping on the trunk of one they walked past just for good measure. "Can't say my feelings have changed much about such places since then."

"I'm just glad that it didn't take a lot to convince you to switch occupations," Judy muttered in response to his story. "It's at times like this that I start to fear that you enjoyed hustling too much to let it go for good." Dahlia nodded in agreement to her sentiment.

Nick reached out and ruffled her ears, quickly avoiding a counter-swipe from her paws. "Nah, don't worry about that, Carrots, there's no way I'm going back," he reassured her. "The crowd of mammals you call friends as a hustler is not the type I am at a loss to have, well, lost. Well, except for Finnick, he's an exception, which is why I still talk to him. But... Not like you guys. Not even close." The beaming of approval from both of them was more than enough for the unusual moment of vulnerability from him. He was even more than willing to let this moment slide if he had been paying a bit more attention to where he was going, instead rounding a sharp corner in the trail, and almost walking right into Trigger and Wolford, waiting for them. "What?" he asked gruffly, coming to halt just in time to avoid plowing into them in an embarrassing manner.

Trigger was grinning. "Watch where you're walking, or did you trample all over that group of chipmunks we hiked past?" he warned, before jerking his head to the side. "So, tell me the view ain't worth it!"

For Trigger's information, Nick did notice the group, and did allow them space to pass, he wasn't that dense. With a sigh, he turned his head to look at the view, suppressing the expression on his face to show that yes, he was in fact impressed. The hill the trail was on dipped steeply away from the turn, forcing a parting of the dense trees around them. From this gap, almost like a window, a rather spectacular view of the surrounding forests, farms, and smooth rolling hills going as far as the eye could see contrasted sharply with the woodlands immediately to the sides. Instead, forcing his smug grin back on instead, aided by his large mirrored glasses, Nick turned back to the coyote. "Nope, not worth it. I still don't like you bringing me here," he replied smugly. "The climb's terrible and so is the view."

Trigger's grin faded sharply, ears dropping as his muzzle distorted into a frown. "Fine, be as you may, but I think you're just in denial." He turned his back to Nick, resuming the walk, but also allowing the fox the opportunity to pull his phone out to snap a few quick pictures in secret.

Judy grinned as she spotted the device in his paws. No matter how much her partner would snark and complain about anything that wasn't relaxing or other forms of lazying about, she knew that underneath his jaded mask, there was still that young tod underneath there somewhere that would be amazed by the world around him.

But unfortunately, before she could make her own snappy comment about his rather lame attempt at hiding his photography, a sudden and rather loud yelp from Trigger's direction instantly tore her attention away from Nick.

The pilot was hunched over, furiously rubbing at a spot on his leg and cursing underneath his breath. Next to him, James was having a hard time keeping upright, too busy laughing at the sight.

While the other officers around her excluding him stared in confusion at the sight, Judy was able to spot the problem right away. "Wait, Trigger, did you really just walk into that patch of _Urtica dioica_?" she asked, pointing to a large bush of wide, fuzzy leaves.

Letting go of his leg, Trigger sighed in frustration, as well as quite a bit of confusion. "I guess? Don't know what they're called, but it was from walking into that bush over there... I always thought they were simply called nettles," he complained. "Completely forgot that they grow here. Should have remembered that they do that considering how many there are." For good effect, before Judy could stop him, he smacked one of the large leaves next to him with an open paw. "Oh, sure and it doesn't sting now, or the fifty times I walked right through one of these in the past hour. Only when I barely brush past it does it decide to sting." He rubbed his shin again before standing back up fully. "Good thing they don't hurt that much." Even as James next to him started to chuckle again, he was able to also see the humor in the situation if the grin he gave to the wolf was any indication.

"Hey, Carrots," Nick started to point out, now that he knew what to look for, and more specifically, what to watch out for. "Whatever these plants are, may I perhaps bring to your attention to the fact that they are literally everywhere!"

Judy grinned back at him. "Why are you sounding like you want to blame me for it? I didn't bring you here." She jerked her head at Trigger's direction. "You want to complain about the plant life here, talk to him. But I- _Dahlia, don't_!"

Fangmeyer was poking one of the leaves with a curious expression, looking disappointed when nothing happened. "Just a fuzzy leaf, nothing to worry about," she commented, rubbing her fingers on the peculiar surface. Only to suddenly jerk her paw back with a hiss of pain at a sting of her own. "Okay, I see what the issue is." It did in fact not hurt too much, but still quite surprising from such an innocent looking plant. And like Nick just complained about them, they really were everywhere. Hearing more chuckling coming from Wolford, it was her turn to frown as she crossed her arms. "Yeah, go ahead and laugh it up, James. I don't need to be reminded about curiosity and cats." She paused for just a moment, before quickly turning towards Nick. "And you too! No, especially from you!"

Nick grinned widely as he winked down to Judy. "Hey, you mentioned it, Stripes, not me. But since you did bring it up, how -"

"No, Nick! Shut up now or I'll toss you into the bush myself! You too, James."

"Easy now! Just saying."

"Just don't walk into them like I did," Trigger muttered gruffly, but now watching the scene his an amused smirk of his own. "But especially don't go rubbing your pawn all over it on purpose. Wither way, worst case is you get a small sting, nothing serious. Anyways, let's get going, or we'll be late getting back."

And just like they, they were off again, the pilot again in the lead, though now all five of them in one large conversation that more involved swapping silly stories of others being stupid because of boredom. Even if military or police, there was no denying that long periods of doing nothing often lead to unpleasant results to the bored party, and hilarious results to everyone else. And from there, the story swapping somehow morphed into talking about little traditions in the ZPD, or in Trigger's case, the OADF.

"-Yeah, we like to say that you aren't a real cop at Precinct One until you get your tail completely chewed out at by the chief for being assigned a task that you botch up through no fault of your own," Dahlia was explaining, much more for Trigger's benefit since the other officers had already heard the story at least once before. "Usually it's because you are sent to a call only to find out that you are the completely wrong species or the wrong size, and just by showing up you made things worse. Like in my case, when I was called in to a domestic dispute about half a year into my time under Bogo." She shuddered at the memory. "Go figure that it just had to be Chitals. And when they saw that a tiger showed up, uh, they _flipped_. Not only were they not the nicest of people around, if I may add my personal opinion, but I'm sure they also had certain views about species superiority that I can't agree with. And that made work rather more difficult. But, long story short, just because I was in the closest squad car at the time, a simple domestic dispute turned into a rather… unforgettable hostage situation."

"Oh, yeah, I remember you telling me about that," James said with a smirk. "Way better of a story than my being forced to run into Little Rodentia, but I don't mind not being you with this case." With his own story already known by everyone else, including Trigger, he didn't bother to elaborate on it any further.

She shook her head to clear it. "Bogo knew that it wasn't my fault, but because I was still rather new, but I may or may have not said some things to those jerks that only escalated the scene, which is what I got chewed out at. But when Francine showed up, they acted towards her completely differently." She glanced over her shoulder to Trigger, whom she didn't remember slipping back in the group, but there he was, walking behind her. "So what's your story? When does a pilot become, for the lack of a better word, a real pilot?"

Trigger gave a shy grin. "There is what you can call a rite of passage for us pilots. Especially combat pilots, but really anything that can pull G's. But getting your wings is one thing, but to really be a pilot? Ever heard of the G-fracture?"

While the others shook their heads, it was James who winced and nodded. "Ooh, yeah I know about it. One of my pack cousin's a crew chief in our air force, remember how I told you about Kyle when we were out on patrol? Anyways, he knows a couple of pilots, and they told him about it."

Shaking his tail about to draw attention to it, Trigger continued. "We're always taught to make sure that our tails are kept where they are out of the way of anything important, as well as to keep them safe in case of any sudden, violent maneuvers." He started to run a paw through the fur on his tail, searching for something. "So you know how, uh… yeah, like how much it hurts when Judy steps on your tail?"

Nick chuckled while Judy frowned at the example being used. "Sure do, but go on." He poked her on the shoulder for good measure, dodging the resultant shove from her.

"Now imagine what will happen when she weighs close to ten times as much," Trigger said dryly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Such as, as an example, you are pulling a nine-G turn, and you failed to notice that your tail is right in between the rest of your body and the hard metal edge of your seat." He held up the tip of his tail, even if there wasn't anything unusual to see. "Healed up quick, but still hurt like you wouldn't believe at the moment. Actually, I'm pretty sure tail injuries are the most common issue with flying short of motion sickness."

He continued to walk for several moments with a slight goofy grin on his muzzle, away in thoughts. It was only after he let out a bark of laughter that he started to talk again in order to explain what caused his reaction. "When we were still flying our trainers, there was a cougar, Screecher, who earned his call sign like that. We were practicing maneuvers, but because there were several of us, we had to radio in before making a move. So he radios in 'Leo Six beginning turn', uh-" Trigger glanced at the others very quickly. "Just our assigned call signs for the day, no meaning behind them. Anyways, his maneuver was, to put it very politely, crap. The instructors were immediately on him for completely failing it, and it wasn't for a good half minute until he was given the opportunity to actually respond."

Starting to chuckle again, he actually had to take a few moment to get himself to talk again. "And when he did, oh, you all should have been there," Trigger suddenly raised the pitch of his voice as much as he could. "'Leo Six reporting that I'm in pain!'" he screeched loudly, barely able to finish as he joined in with the other's laughter. Again needing to take some time to calm down, he finished his story with a simple "And from that day forwards, we all knew him as Screecher. Can't say that my adventure with getting a broken tail was quite as interesting, but that's how the tradition goes. You ain't a pilot 'till you earned it with blood, or snapped bones, as it may."

"So what does that make Count?" James asked with a grin. "Don't think he can even break his tail. I don't know. Judy?"

Judy smirked back. "Nope, don't need to worry about breaking it," she replied smugly. Then to Trigger, she then asked. "But like he said, what about Count?"

Trigger smirked back. "Guess Count's not a pilot," he answered. "Just don't tell him that I told you that." His grin slowly fading away, he did add after a bit of hesitation that "to be honest, I'm not sure what the tradition is for species that don't have tails short enough not to worry about it is, you'll need to ask him about it."

And like that, it was the end of that conversation.

The group walked on, chatting away here and there, when Nick had to point out glaringly wrong about where they were going. Specifically, when they crossed a paved road towards a dusty parking lot with a couple of cars. "Hey, Strikes, you really sure we're headed the right way?"

"Sure are," Trigger reassured him without even glancing back. "I remember this place like it was yesterday."

Even tough Judy was certain that he was more than familiar with wherever they were based on all the time he spent staring at the map of the area, she was also certain that he was not referring to a computer screen with his answer.

"Well, it's just that I want to point out, again, that if I were to turn around from where we are going," Nick whined, "I can actually see the coast. And it's rather far away, I might add. And here we are, going _away_ from it. And why didn't we just drive up here in the first place, rather than march up here like idiots?"

Judy glanced over her partner, worried that the attitude was a sign that her partner wasn't feeling well.

Trigger stopped suddenly, this time earning himself a growl of complaint as Dahlia had to avoid bumping into him. "Well, I mean we could have driven here, but then we would have had to finish the day with what we just climbed up," he explained slowly, uncertainty creeping into his voice. "Just that I didn't think that you would have wanted to end with the most boring part."

Noticing that everyone's eyes were on him, Nick brushed them off with a flick of his paw. "Eh, don't matter much to me, just felt like complaining." Then to Judy's glare, he added, "what? A fox doesn't have a right to complain?"

She rolled her eyes back at him. "If you didn't complain all the time about everything, Nick, I would have started to seriously worry that you weren't feeling well. You sure that you're feeling all right? Maybe this was too much after all, and-"

"Don't worry about me, Carrots, I'm fine," Nick hurried to explain, cutting her off. "Call it being bored, that's all. And seriously, Strikes, when are we actually going to head to, you know, as you said, the _coast_?"

Trigger pointed at yet another hill looming on the horizon. "That's the top. Then it's a straight shot downhill until we hit water, and there will be no more climbing after that. All flat," he explained. "At the rate we're walking, it will take us less than half an hour." Then with a sigh, he said, "but if you want, I think I remember there being a shortcut down that bypasses that peak. If not, there's that trail right there that goes downhill. Either way, if you don't want to go up, we don't have to… But it does mean missing out on the best view in the park, and I really want to not have to skip it myself." He lowered his ears and tilted his head in the direction of the hill. "Come on, Nick. What do you say?"

Nick glared at their destination. Hadn't they been climbing up to the top for the past two hours, even longer? Since when did that thing sneak up on them? But when he glanced over at the pilot, he couldn't help but burst into laughter. "Strikes, you can cut it out with trying to look cute, I'm partnered with a bunny. Doesn't work on me."

"Hey!" Judy protested. He knows better than to call her that!

"But I admit, you have sparked my interest." Nick completely ignored her as he started to walk again, even having the audacity to wave at the others to keep up and not fall behind. "We will go to the top, and it better be worth it, otherwise I might just call Finnick."

Trigger frowned, not that Nick was able to see. "And what is he going to do?"

Nick smirked, turning his head to make sure that Trigger did see. "Oh nothing much, just bite 'yer face off."

"Ooh, the challenge is on!" James exclaimed. "I'll make sure to have a camera rolling!"

As Trigger's retort devolved into yet another long argument between the three canidaes, Judy allowed herself on settling into a conversation with Dahlia to help pass the time. And as much as she hated to admit it, she even found herself agreeing with Nick that the view better be worth it, for when they started to climb this last hill proper, she quickly found the experience to be rather miserable. It was hot, dusty, and too many spiky plants and shrubs were all too eager to jab at her, with her soft gray shirt barely doing anything to block the branches. In short, it was the worst of farming back home, minus the benefit of growing food, with the added displeasure of having to hike uphill. She bottled water in her backpack was also starting to settle into an uncomfortably warm temperature, so drinking also offered less respite from the heat than she had hoped for. To add to the experience, they all had to squeeze to the side when a pair of deer came barreling down the opposite direction on mountain bikes, barely slowing down as they sped past.

So it was to her surprise that she found her feet suddenly cross from the uneven trail to the sun-baked surface of a road. And not just crossing a road like before, but walking right on along it. The slope was even leveling out, and it really did look like they finally reached the top. As though to prove her hopes, a soft but cool coastal breeze ruffled the tops of her ears, instantly helping remove the heat.

"We're here!" Trigger announced, confirming all doubt. "What time is it?"

Dahlia had her phone out first. "Noon, almost exactly."

"Great! There should be a bench just up ahead. Will make a great place to grab some lunch." But instead of continuing on, he stopped suddenly again, staring at a fenced off pair of sheds. "Oh, so that's what they are..."

James was reading the sign posted next to the gate leading to the sheds. "Wow, they're threatening jail time if we break in. Wait, Mammal Aviation Authority? What's the MAA's jurisdiction here?" He glanced over at Trigger. "You're the pilot here, you explain."

Trigger was grinning. "Sure, this is a VOR beacon," he said, "it's a guidance point, aircraft can use equipment to lock onto it. Predates GPS, and is kept around as a backup as well as for the many aircraft still flying around without satellite navigation." His grin widened in realization. "It's… actually ironic, but last time I was here, I didn't know what it was. Just some sort of storage bin or something. Now I'm here, more than a decade later, and I know exactly what this is. And I even know how to use it!" A paw went for the back of his neck, scratching at the fur. "I mean, maybe by the end of today, I might even stop feeling like I'm in a dream. It's like… like I know everything, because I have been here many times before, but at the same time… it's like my first time again." He gave the others a sheepish grin. "If you don't mind my mindless rambling."

Nick also grinned as he grabbed onto Trigger's shoulders, peeling him away from the sheds. "That's great, but since we're finally at the top, what about the view?" he asked, patting his pocket. "I'd hate to have to make a phone call."

Another trail broke away from the road, waving next to the fence line of the beacon. Wearing a smirk much like Nick's, Trigger turned onto it while still keeping his head looking through the fence inside. "This _is_ the view," he countered, "see? There are the transmitters!" He pointed towards a stack of white metallic devices forming a large circle inside a clearing just past the fence. "But okay, sure, the view is coming up." Just a moment later, and, "Yes, the bench is still here!"

Sure enough, there was a bench on the side of the trail, facing away from the fence and towards the vista offered by the top of the hill. And especially when Judy hopped on top of the bench to get a better view, she had to admit it: yes, the view was worth it. To the right of them, the smooth rolling hills and farmlands from before ventured even further away into the hazy horizon, the view now completely unobstructed as even the few trees around were below the immediate horizon. To the right, the forest descended quickly to a smooth coastline, the water beyond reflecting the noon sunlight. To the front of them, the coast and rolling hills met together in a picturesque elegant curve.

Judy couldn't help but break into her own grin. Yes, the view was worth it. Even the top views in Zootopia didn't compare to this. This time, she almost had to remind herself to take her phone out to take pictures, busy as she was with just taking in the sights.

Evidently though, not everyone in the group had their minds set on sight seeing. James and Dahlia found a wooden picnic table a short distance away from the bench, and used to to settle their backpacks down, grabbing the food stored inside them. Nick joined them right away, letting out an exaggerated groan as he let his weight settle off his legs.

"Come on, everyone, gather closer!" Judy called out, motioning to Trigger to join the group forming by the table. He shrugged looking very unsure, but did as she asked, sitting down on the top of the table next to the others.

James meanwhile tilted his head at Judy, before reaching into his rather stuffed backpack. "You can put your phone away, Hopps, it has a terrible camera anyways!"

Judy huffed both at him reverting to her last name as though they were on patrol, as well as insulting her phone. The camera on it was more than capable of doing the job! But as much as her pride demanded that they use her device, she did feel a pang of jealousy when James pulled out a rather impressive looking camera from his backpack. That thing alone had to be worth at least as much as her phone, without wasting cost on being able to do all of the things that phones can do over dedicated cameras. "Okay, you win, we'll use yours," she relented when he jogged over to her and set his device up instead. She headed to the table, and hopped up to the top where Nick patted down at a space next to him.

With a few button presses on the back of his camera, James raised a paw to signal that he was ready, and with one final additional press, rushed back to them and took his own spot in the group before the timer went off. Ignoring Trigger's protests, he reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling in the pilot closer. "Don't be shy, pup! It's only a picture! Shame we won't be able to share them around once I'll be done processing them, though."

In the end, they took several pictures. Some were silly, but the most were the five of them just sitting on top of the table, Nick propping Judy up on his legs, and Trigger still within James' grasp with Dahlia, being the largest, forming the back of the group. All five of them were grinning, letting the scenery in the back do all the talking for them in the pictures. Once they took enough, they slid off the top of the table so that they can actually use it to dig into their lunches.

Feeling the gentle breeze flow past her ears, Judy had to admit that this was much better compared to trying to seek relief from the heat of a parked cruiser on the side of the road in the form of a boxed salad. That, and Nick actually seemed hungry enough not to be talking for once. As much as she enjoyed their banter, a bit of peace and quiet was a welcome break compared to the usual. Speaking of Nick...

"Still not sure if the climb was worth it, Strikes," he relented in between bites of a sandwich, "but it's not all that bad, I'll give you that." Judy felt certain that it was Nick, in his usual sarcastic way, admitting that he in fact was also enjoying being up here.

It was around this time that James, having wolfed down his lunch, pulled out a set of binoculars from his backpack and was now looking through them. "Hey, I can see an island in the distance," he announced, "almost invisible in the haze."

Trigger looked up from his protein bar to the coast. "Yeah, there's some islands in that direction. You'll see them better when we'll be down by the beach. Just some rocks as far as I'm aware, nothing special."

Dahlia pulled her phone out and searched for it, needing a good several minutes to find what she was looking for. "Oh, they even have an article on them on Wikipawdia," she informed the others, "let's see what it says." Letting the article load, she started to read from it. "'The Sharktooths is a small chain of islands off the coast just north of Zootopia, and are a popular resting grounds for many migratory bird species. The islands as a whole have been declared a wildlife sanctuary, and the only mammal presence on the islands is a small research outpost where biologists can…" she continued to read on, skipping the more boring parts. "-Oh no," she stopped reading when she got to a lower section, showing the phone to the other cops. The part that she didn't read out loud was short, but impactful: The islands' territory technically belonged to the city of Zootopia, and as a consequence, ZPD officers who needed strong disciplinary action, but not enough to be fired, were on occasion known to be sent to the islands 'to walk a beat on the Sharktooths'. Due to the tightly controlled population of biologists on the only inhabited island, combined with the very small surface area, meant that it was the unanimously agreed on worst assignment by all officers who suffered the misfortune of being assigned to them.

Judy read over the article and groaned, burying her face into her paws while Nick and James started to chuckle when they read what was going on.

Only Trigger was left clueless, sitting a bit too far from Dahlia to see the phone well. "What?" he asked. Fangmeyer leaved over and allowed him to take the phone, which he then took a few moments to read over. "Oh, I see…" he looked over at the others, staring blankly at each of them until something finally clicked in his mind and he started to loudly laugh, pointing at them and struggling not to fall off the table. "You-you're all cops!" he struggled to say as all four of the others glared at him. "An-and with the ZPD! That's too much!" He was literally swaying in circles from laughter, several times nearly falling off the table. His laughing was cut off suddenly, the collar around his neck going off with an angry warning buzz.

Judy froze, eyes wide with worry.

"Damn it…" He tugged at the collar, trying to free up the fur underneath.

"Serves you right," James muttered as Trigger grimaced and rubbed at the spot. Judy just about punched him hard for that comment right then and there. But despite his words, it was clear from his empathetic tone that it was clear that he was also thinking the same thing as the other cops: no one should have to suffer the indignity of being punished for allowing themselves to laugh at a stupid joke. Which was the only thing that saved him from losing a couple of teeth for his remark.

With an annoyed grunt, Trigger hid the collar back beneath his shirt. "Someone ought to take a look at it to see if it's broken. Besides, you've got to admit that it was really funny," he then said, a grin returning to his muzzle. "I genuinely didn't know that. And, uh, yeah, don't think it's a good idea to ask Bogo about it though. He might just send you there if you do." He leaned over and gently punched Wolford in the shoulder. "Come on, it's _funny_!"

James grinned back. "Guess you're right, pup," he relented, returning the gesture, almost throwing the pilot off the table, "but don't look at me like that. If anything, it's Officer Hopps who's most likely to be sent to those rocks. Her, or Wilde. Or both of them, with their antics and what not." With a sly grin, he pumped fists with Nick, who unlike Judy, didn't mind the accusation.

Judy herself relaxed a little, despite them joking at her expense, it meant that Trigger wasn't effected by the collar much. Never the less, the mood _was_ ruined, and Trigger at least went back to eating what remained of his lunch, letting the others mind their own business.

Finding that there was now room to do so, Nick was more than happy to stretch himself out along the top of the table, making a show of closing his eyes and letting his tongue slide out of the corner of his mouth. This left Judy polishing off her plastic container before sliding it back into her backpack. Looking up, she noticed that Trigger was still holding onto one of his bars, staring at it with a frown on his muzzle. "Um, Trigger, you okay? You're staring rather intensely."

He blinked, giving out an embarrassed chuckle upon realizing that several pairs of eyes were now on him. "Oh, it's uh, nothing really. Just thinking…"

"...About?" Judy offered, hoping that she wasn't making a mistake by urging him on.

"We really should get going, still got a while to go." Trigger slid off the table, ignoring Judy's question.

"Trigger-"

"It's nothing, really! Nick, get up, unless you prefer to spend the rest of your life stuck here." He poked the fox on the muzzle, earning a groan of complaint from the officer. "I was just thinking about this morning, about what might happen if the Urusians succeed in creating a nighthowler bomb."

Judy stopped in her tracks. While she couldn't say that she felt surprised that the subject came up again, she did wonder why here and now of all times it cropped up again. But as Trigger did start to actually explain what he was thinking, she found out very quickly that he wasn't worried about it.

"-and even if it does work, all it will be is another terror weapon," he was explaining as they made their way down, tone completely casual. "Urusia has nukes, as do we, and doesn't even pretend not to have them, and doesn't use them. Same with chemical weapons. The last thing Urusia needs is the rest of the world to invade them because they decided to use a nuke. What will make a nighthowler bomb any different?"

"That's great and all," James mumbled, "but you're forgetting that the reason we're out here today is that two of us got nighthowlered recently. It's not a pleasant experience, and I personally hope that you will never have to experience it."

"Yeah… but you're still here, talking to me. All I'm saying is that the Urusians will be very stupid to use such a bomb. I mean, I thought you don't even remember anything while under nighthowlers, or at least, that's what Clawhauser told me. So it can't be that bad."

James grunted. "No, I guess not. Unless you wake up in a hospital and be told that you tore apart your own partner while you weren't in control of yourself."

Trigger winced and looked guilty. "Oh, jeez. Did that ever happen?"

"No," Dahlia answered before James could. "But only because we got lucky so far. And for that matter, because nighthowlers are still very rare. I personally hope that everyone who thinks that nighthowlers are a neat idea will get over it before that stuff becomes common."

There was a bit more back and forth, but with James understandably being squeamish about the topic, and Nick being… Nick, sporting his usual smirk to hide any discomfort due to the topic, the conversation did not last very long. Near the end though, Trigger did admit that he was rather more worried about getting back to flying after all the time spent stuck on the ground.

"-With those lines on my tail, all of Urusia will be gunning for me. I am hoping that at worst, I will still be good enough to just stay alive," he admitted with a sheepish grin, looking around to make sure that they were still alone. "I uh… might have read up on some of the stuff that both the Urusians and Ocelotia were writing up about Three Strikes, and I really wish that even ten percent of it was true. Both side expect me to just about pull miracles out of my tail, if they are to be believed. I'm just hoping that that assessment coming up that Count and I will need to do…I just hope it will be enough."

Nick slapped Trigger over the shoulder. "Don't you worry about that, coyote. Miracles were always your thing."

Judy eyes widened in shock as Trigger gave Nick a curious look. "Did… you just make a dig at my species?"

"What, me? I would never!" Nick batted his eyelashes innocently. "All I'm saying is, if miracles are not enough for you, you can always chase some roadrunners."

Trigger rolled his eyes, but his own grin showed that he was enjoying where this was going. "And that's what the fox says. Tell you what, I stick with my roadrunners, you can enjoy all the henhouses you want."

"Boys, stop!" Everyone all looked down at a glaring Judy, both paws clenched into fists. "You _are not _going to have this conversation. Not now, not ever!"

"Aww, come on, Carrots! I was just getting started!"

"No, Nick!"

Trigger cleared his throat in order to grab Judy's attention. "Well, actually, he does have a point there. Whether we use these stereotypes or not, it won't change the fact that they exist. So might as well laugh at them and have some fun."

"Fine, whatever," Judy grumbled, allowing herself to slip to the back of the group. "Forget it."

So sure enough, despite how much she didn't want them to, Nick and Trigger ventured off on another random conversation, this time about the coyote and fox stereotypes. Apparently, Trigger found the time to read up on the material he was given from that event, and was now able to use to use that information, but why did it have to be this? It got even worse as James and Dahlia joined in as well, offering their own two cents whenever they felt like adding to the conversation, comparing the two to wolves and tigers as well where it was possible. Sure, it was all fun and games for the other four, but she honestly was struggling to find the humor in it all. Not that they listened to her when she tried to get them to stop, only shrugging her off at every attempt and leaving her fuming in the back.

"-so you know how they say that foxes are red because the devil made them?" Trigger was asking, hopping over a fallen log blocking the trail.

"Sure do! I even had Carrot's dear ol' granddad tell me that one time when she was on a video call," Nick answered with a smirk. "Isn't that right, Fluff?"

"I refuse to answer that, Nick," Judy growled at him, hoping her tone was strong enough to get through James and Dahlia and still tell her partner that he needs to find something better tot talk about, pronto.

"Eh, ignore her then," Nick muttered. "So anyways, I'm curious as to where you are going with this. Go on, lay it on me."

Trigger shrugged and continued with his argument. "Well, according to one legend, Coyote helped the Earth Maker create, well, everything. But when the work was all done, Coyote decided that it was too perfect, so he went and created all the evil in the world to top it all off. So you see Nick, foxes might have been made by the devil, but us Coyotes _are_ the devil. Try to top that."

Nick made a show of being deep in though, tilting his muzzle up to the tree canopy up above them for good effect. "Hmm, maybe I can. But I feel like you're purposefully leaving something out here, so how about I tell you 'pics or it didn't happen'."

"You're the one with the phone." Trigger countered. "You look it up."

"Fine, if you want to roll that way." With a of roll his eyes, Nick pulled his phone out, only to frown when he looked at the screen. "No signal," he complained. He raised the phone up over his head, moving it about, but no matter where the phone was, it wouldn't find any signal. "Till no signal? That's impossible!" he complained. "No, my lifeline! It-It's like I'm ten again, and that's terrible! Carrots, do something! Use those lucky rabbit feet of yours and find the signal!"

Judy glanced back at Dahlia, sharing a smirk with the tiger. "Ladies and gentlemammals, meet my partner, Dumb Fox," she said, pointing at Nick, still running around in circles with his phone high in the air. Dahlia had to cover her her mouth to stop herself from busting out loud with laughing at Nick's misery. Perhaps he was a big city fox after all.

"Need me to lift you up?" Dahlia asked, getting over her chuckles, "but even I can't lift you over those trees."

Nick stopped, putting his phone away with a heavy sigh. "No, that won't be needed. I'm good," he replied, "Just a terrible turn of events that will go away very soon."

"You done flailing about back there?" Trigger's voice came from around a bend in the trail. "Come and take a look at this!"

Grumbling to himself, Nick hurried to catch up to the pilot. Past the curve in the trail, the forest they were in ended into a field of grass and bushes. The trail itself merged into another one that was going perpendicular in both directions to where they were just headed. "Yeah, what's so special about here?" he scoffed, kicking up a cloud of dust as he stomped on a particularly dusty part of trail. "Not even much to see here."

"There isn't," Trigger agreed, "but we're going that way," he pointed down one of the two directions. "Which is also the direction back to the car. This also means that this point is the furthest we are from the parking lot, and are now officially on our way back."

"Yeah, great," Nick grunted, leaning on the trail sign post at the intersection in order to stretch out his legs. It's been too many hours of constant walking, and he was feeling more than ready to already call it a day, not just half of one. "Where's the beach again? I'm not the biggest fan of breathing in dirt. That's more of Carrot's schtick."

Trigger looked embarrassed. "It's um, relatively close," he mumbled, putting emphasis on the word 'relatively'. "Half an hour from now, tops! And no more hills!"

Nick smirked and pushed Trigger in the correct direction they needed to go to. "Well go on then. We're not going to get there just standing around here." With a temporarily disgruntled pilot again taking the lead, the group followed him on this latest of dusty trails. Even Trigger agreed that this particular section was on the boring side when asked, but also insisted that the rest was more than worth it.

Although he probably didn't mean it exactly that way when they reached yet another parking lot, this one larger than the small plot from before and mingling with a few mammals amidst the parked cars.

"Well, I have some good news," James announced, pointing down the direction a small paved road snaked away. "At the risk of sounding like Trigger, but I know where we are. The main parking lot down by the beach is just over there. We're really close. To the beach, that is, not back to the car."

Nick grinned at this news. "I would ask why we didn't just drive here, but at this point, all I can say is: Music to my ears!" His enthusiasm was somewhat dampened when even Jame's 'really close' translated to an additional walk down wide, moderately trafficked and dusty trail that took more than ten minutes to cross. However, unlike the entire walk prior, this dirt road, meandering in a fairly straight line between one of the sides of a valley, and a thick patch of trees and swampy ground on the other, was trafficked by at least several groups of mammals. This did give Nick the opportunity to show off his hustler's smirk at they would pass one another, but they seemed more interested in Judy's presence amidst a group of much larger predators than his smirk. Then the trail made a sharp turn into the trees, using some raised ground to go over the swampy ground.

"Better not stay to close to the edge there, Carrots," Nick told his partner as Judy leaned over the edge of the trail to take a look at the murky water below them, and the trees growing straight out from it. "Could be a crocodile waiting to jump up and enjoy a nice bunny lunch."

Judy huffed and playfully punched Nick's arm. "First of all, Nick, this is the Pawcific coast, no crocs here. Second, even if they were here, the water is too shallow for one to hide in, it's only about an inch or two deep."

Nick shrugged. "Fine then, but I think I saw on TV how one can hide even in very shallow water. Just don't complain to me if you get bitten by a snake." He grinned and flicked her ears when, despite still acting like the tough cop rabbit that she was, Judy still moved over and placing Nick between her and the nearest edge of the trail. "I thought you farm bunnies already know how to deal with creepy-crawlies," he teased.

"Back home, they are exactly why we surround our farms with nighthowlers," Judy said, swatting Nick's paws away. "Keeps snakes and bugs away, and us safe, since we know not to eat those."

"Yeah, well…" Nick looked around for a reason to get away from this specific topic, "hey, where did all the trees go?" He turned around, and sure enough, there were the thick woods they just crossed, but up ahead, it was all dried grasses. "They just stopped."

Judy grinned to herself - her more sensitive hearing was already picking up the steady thumping of waves somewhere very close by. "That's because trees can't grow this close to salt water," she answered, nudging him on. "Isn't that what we came here for? Come on!"

"Salt water?" It took Nick a couple of moments for his mind to add two and two together, and he scolded himself mentally at how long it took him to realize just exactly what she was talking about. "Ah, I get it, Carrots, keep your tail on." Pretending to be nonchalant about it, he never the less increases his pace to keep up with the bunny.

Which couldn't be said about the others as Trigger hurried past Nick at an even faster pace, ditching the dirt road for a small sandy path between clumps of thick, tall grasses. Just a few seconds later, he crossed the top of the sandy dune, pushing some of the grass out of the way, and staring at the coast. "Yes, we're here!" He jogged forward onto the sand proper, raising his head up to the sky.

Following close behind the pilot, James' eyes widened in fear when he noticed Trigger raise his muzzle. Realizing just what exactly the coyote was about to do, he pleaded at the last possible moment, "Trigger, no! Please don't-" He shut his mouth and groaned, pressing his paws around his own jaws as Trigger let out a high pitched howl, the noise making the fur on the back of his neck rise. "That's not going to work on me, Trigger," he complained as soon as there was silence. "Your howls are too high pitched for us wolves. They're like claws on chalkboard." He hissed, then growled and folded his ears flat on top of his head when Trigger smirked at him before letting out another howl. "Trigger, _stop_!"

Nick watched the spectacle, nudging Judy on the side as the three remaining cops followed at a far more leisurely pace. "What is up with canines and their howling? Although poor Wolfy, doesn't appear to be enjoying it one bit." Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted both Judy and Dahlia with their phones out, recording the spectacle rather than just observing it. "Seriously, ladies? Video surveillance?"

"Clawhauser will want to see this," Dahlia mumbled, busy looking at her screen to make sure that the camera was capturing what she wanted it to. "Plus, I might get some nice material to use on James out of this. That, and I've been hanging out with wolves long enough to know that something fun is going to come up. They _really_ don't like others howling if they are not the ones to start it." She gave a little wave to some of the other mammals on the beach who were also watching them, wondering what the noise was all about.

James carefully allowed himself to relax when Trigger's howl die down. Even with his police training specifically on how to prevent himself on joining in on unwanted howls, he hated to admit just how close he got to letting loose because of this pilot. He hoped that it down to simply some part of him that wanted to desperately show the coyote what a real howl was, rather than continue to endure the pain of listening to this one that was just… wrong. Closing the distance, he placed his arm over the pilot's shoulder. "You know what we at the ZPD like to do to those who howl like that?" He shrugged his backpack off his shoulder, pulling Trigger's off as well and setting both down on the soft sand.

Shrugging, Trigger eyed James with a look of distrust. "What do you mean by 'like that'? You mean _properly_? You wolves have been howling wrong for as long as we coyotes have known you. But all right, I'll bite. What do you do?"

James' grin widened. "We do this." In a flash, he bent down and firmly grabbed Trigger, lifting him up and over his shoulder. His legs, having already starting to ache from the roughly already five hour long hike and counting, were not enjoying the added weight as they started to burn in protest. To make things even worse, Trigger himself was also flailing about, trying to escape. But the larger Wolford made sure that his grip was strong enough to keep the pilot from escaping as he stomped through the sand towards the water.

"Let go you jerk!" Trigger yelled as he struggled to escape. "You better not be going where I think you are! Wolford, _let me go!_"

James grunted as he adjusted his stance to help ease the pain in his arms and legs. With one more grunt of effort, he waded in knee deep into the water, eyes widening at just how cold it was. Just seconds inside, and his paws were already starting to go numb. A wave crashed into him, threatening his balance as it started to soak through his pants. "All right then, you want down? Have it your way."

"_No not here!_"

Waiting for just the right moment, James raised Trigger high over his head, and let go just as a new wave rolled in, dropping the coyote right into its path. Turning back to the shore, he waded out, flicking the water off his limbs with a victorious grin. Seeing the other cops close bye, he walked over to them. "Got him!"

The grin vanished as soon as he stopped next to a very pissed off looking Dahlia and Judy, the rabbit especially furious at him. Ears folding down, he stared at them. Even Nick, still recording with Judy's phone, looked unusually pissed at him. "What? He howled!" he tried to explain. "We always pull pranks on whoever does that!"

Dahlia snorted. "That may be the case, but you weren't messing with another rookie here. Look!" She pointed past his shoulder to the ocean.

Turning around slowly, James felt guilt rise up in him when he saw the issue.

Trigger was standing in the water, completely soaked and dripping water everywhere. But more importantly, the now heavy shirt slid down to reveal his collar, and more specifically, the paw clutching at it and a pained expression on the pilot's muzzle.

"Oh sh-! Trigger, I'm sorry! You okay?" James rushed back into the water, realizing that he had gone too far with his prank. It had never been his intention to cause Trigger to shock himself. But as he splashed over, his eyes widened as he realized that it was now him that was him that was tricked, as Trigger suddenly looked up at him with a smirk.

On the shore, Nick was very glad that he was still recording everything with Judy's phone as he watched the pilot wait for Wolford to head back over, only to very smoothly ram the wolf's midsection, using Jame's own momentum to send him up and over Trigger's head and straight back down into the cold water. James emerged above the surface moments later, only to get swallowed up anew as a fresh wave rolled over his head. Getting his head above the water again, James shook it vigorously in order to get the water out of his eyes and mouth.

"Serves you right."

James looked up at a very smug Trigger, but couldn't help but grin back at the irony of the situation. "Now where have I heard that before?" he asked, holding out a paw. "Might helping me up? We'll call it a draw. And uh, but that was a good move, by the way. Didn't think you could pull off something like that."

Trigger reached out to Wolford, but hesitated at the last second. "OADF, remember? Also, why would Three Strikes settle for a draw?" he teased. But before James could come up with an answer, he grabbed the cop by the arm and pulled him back upright. Together, they exited the water, dripping wet and cold, not helped by the wind blowing in from the sea.

Satisfied that er phone captured a nice video of the event, Judy put the device away before glancing over the two soaking wet canines. "I don't think any of us actually brought a towel," she informed them, "so you two are out of luck."

James glanced over at Trigger with a grin. "Yeah, but us canines don't need towels, am I right?" Together, the two simultaneously shook themselves, sending water droplets flying in all directions, and Judy diving behind Nick for cover while shouting profanities at the two.

"You done?" she demanded, peaking around Nick's tail.

"Yeah, we're done, you can come out now," Trigger answered, wringing his wet shirt free of as much water as he can. When he was done with that, he tugged up his shirt to try and hide his collar again, but the wet material refused to stay up, and eventually he simply gave up and let the collar remain showing. With Dahlia holding out his backpack for him, he put it back on, shuddering with a startled groan as it pressed against the back of his shirt. Surprisingly, he let out a chuckle at the discomfort. "Reminds me far too much of when I landed into Zootopia," he explained. "Parachuted right next to those large snow blowers in Tundra Town. Since it was dark, nothing like landing into snow mounds taller than you are."

"Now that had to be _cold_," James said with his own shudder as he too slipped his backpack back on.

Trigger nodded. "Tell me about it. Actually, with all of that trying to evade you guys and having to get Count out of the Jungle district where he got stuck in, I'm really lucky I didn't fall sick after all of that."

Dahlia grunted in amusement and slapped him on the back. "Well how about you don't go falling sick now either," she said as she noticed both canines shivering as a gust of breeze hit the group. "Let's get going, moving will keep you warm while the sun will do the rest." And so with her urging, they started to walk again, moving along the coast. Despite already being wet, or perhaps exactly because of it, James and Trigger splashed about as the waves moved in and out.

Judy was making sure to stay dry, but she was rather enjoying the feeling of the wet sand on her paws. Something she did notice was that Nick made sure to stay further up the shore than even she was. "What's the matter, Nick? Water shy?" she teased her partner, hopping over to the shallowest of water and kicking a bit over in his direction.

Nick ignored her splashing, but didn't move closer to the water either. "I like keeping my fantastic brush elegant and clean," he answered, wagging his tail in her direction. "It's completely different to those wet mops those two jokers have." He tiled his head and Judy looked to the side where, with another large wave arriving, Trigger and James were again knee deep and not caring about it. "You can blame it on the fox higher sense of personal hygiene compared to wolves." Nick tapped his nose. Don't know if you noticed, but wet fur tends to stink. What about you, Stripes? Kitty afraid of water?"

"No, not afraid," Dahlia stepped into a wave just to prove him wrong, but only staying at the shallowest end. "But I would rather stay dry, thank you very much." She waved over to the inland side, where a small but long cliff blocked access back to the trail they got off on. "But since we're stuck here on the sand, I would rather not get stuck at high tide either."

As they continued to walk down the beach, the group would occasionally pass some other mammals also enjoying the day out in the sun, and they would almost be guaranteed some strange stares from those mammals. Nick flashed his trademark smirk as they passed a large group of rabbits, eyeing him especially with a hostile suspicion and at how close Judy was to him. But Fangmeyer's presence made sure that looking was all they did, rather than opening their mouths to voice some impolite opinion. "Isn't it amazing, Carrots?" Nick asked when they were at a safe distance away. "I'm a tourist attraction! A city fox outside the the city." He couldn't stop himself from chuckling at how infuriated his partner looked. "You can forget about it, Fluff, it's not a big deal."

"But it is!" Judy argued back at him, kicking up some water and casting an angry look back at the group of bunnies fading into the coastal haze behind them. "And bunnies keep complaining about how others look at them? Well talk about the pot calling the kettle black!"

Nick just grinned again and ruffled her ears with a paw. "That's my bunny! Always looking out for us humble chompers!"

"_Nick!_" Of all the words he could have used, why _that_ one? "If I ever hear you use that word again, I'll- No! Just No!"

A short while later, and they reached a small path leading back up to the top of the cliffs. "That's our way out," Trigger announced, sounding rather disappointed. "I honestly forgot how short the section along the actual beach is. Actually, just a sec..." Turning to the water, he hurried back into it until it reached up to his knees. Pulling his still wet ZPD hat off his head, he bent down and dunked it underwater, swirling it around for good measure before plopping the drenched garment back on his head. "Okay, I'm ready!" He jogged back to shore, rejoining the others as they made their way off the beach.

"Why'd you do that, pup?" James asked with a smirk. "Started to dry out too soon?"

Trigger fidgeted nervously, unintentionally slowing down. "Well, the thing is, um, the salt water mixed with sweat and my fur's scent," he pulled the hat off and gave it a sniff, wincing at the stench. "I'll admit is not a pleasant smell. But at the same time… it's… kinda nostalgic. I don't know, hard to explain…" He put the hat on just in time to be nudged on by Dahlia.

"In a strange kind of way, I think I understand what you are saying," she said, "but do notice that you are blocking the only way forward."

Rounding to the top of the path, Judy saw right away why this little cutaway into the cliffside existed as they emerged onto a campsite, designated spots with stoves, fire-pits and all. But that wasn't what caught her eye. "Aww, Nick, look!" Instead, it was the group of cub-scouts, wrestling with a tent they were struggling to set up. The adult supervisors were gathered around a table next to the kits, keeping an eye out but otherwise occupied with setting up a portable stove for cooking supper. But more specifically, what caught Judy's attention, was that one of these cub-scouts, included among the usual assortment of prey mammals, was a fox kit, grunting at a metal pole that he was trying to slide into its proper sleeve and towards a waiting gopher.

Nick also saw the scouts, instantly feeling a mix of emotions go through him that he admitted he felt rather ashamed to feel. So much for 'never let them see that they get to you'. Forcing these thoughts aside, he pulled Judy away from staring at the scouts, and guided both of them away from their group and towards a very conveniently placed restroom that served the campsite. Personally, he was looking towards this opportunity to get off his aching paws, even if only for a few minutes. "That's great, but look what I found. Mind holding my stuff for me, Carrots? If you don't mind, but this city fox wants to utilize this little bit of civilization."

Judy stopped, placing her paws on her hips. "Nick?" Her eyes darted between Nick and the cub scouts. "Are you jealous?"

"What? Me, jealous?" He winked at her. "Never!" But when he got close to one of the doors in the small building, he lowered his voice and added. "Well, if you don't include the fact that I was born only twenty years too early. Only the thing I wanted most as a kit, and well, you already know how that ended up with me."

Lowering her paws away from her hips, Judy hesitated for a moment before reaching out to grab Nick's paw. Nevertheless, she was still wearing a smile on her muzzle as she looked up at him. "Are you saying that you would rather be over there with that group than here with me today?"

Nick grinned back, sliding his backpack off and dumping it on her. "Never in a million years, Fluff!" Opening the door, he slipped inside, only to instantly start gagging at the stench that came from within. So much for civilization. He escaped with Judy from being killed by sliding through an elephant sized sewer, but at least that one was self cleaning in the form of plumbing! This one was… just a hole in the ground, and the interior was swarming with flies. Swell.

So when he emerged back out as soon as possible, the fresh air of the outdoors was a godsend. Nick breathed deeply, replacing the stagnant muck in his lungs with the slightly salty but much more pleasant air. It was then that he looked down and saw his and Judy's backpacks left alone on the ground. "Dumb bunny." Picking up his pack, he placed it back over his shoulders just in time for Judy to reemerge as well and join him. Moments later, they rejoined the others, waiting for the pair at an intersection of their path with another small trail snaking up the hillside.

"Just a couple of hours to go," Trigger announced when Nick and Judy wandered over. "Just need to swing along the coast to the main road then it's a quick shot back to the parking lot. It'll all be flat."

James grinned and pushed the pilot onward. "That's great, but how about we don't get a running update of how much we have to go every five minutes?"

Trigger tilted his head in confusion. "You don't want to know how much you have left? Not like you were too tired to toss me into the ocean."

"Yeah, but that was worth it," James replied smugly. "I can always drop you in again if you hadn't had enough. But seriously, let's keep going and get this over with. Not much to see here and take pictures, either." He patted the strap of his backpack for good measure. The pilot just shrugged and took the lead, hiking down the trail.

And it was along this trail, weaving along near the top of the long cliff, that Judy rather suddenly noticed just how quiet it was around them. With the waves colliding into the beach somewhere below them and out of sight, the sound of waves was rather muted compared to how close they were to the ocean. The gentle breeze around them was too weak to create much in terms of wind noise, even with her large ears. But especially even more, after the multiple groups of mammals along the beach and camp ground, this trail was rather… lonely. In many ways, this was quite ironic. Back in Bunnyburrow, there were always family members and other bunnies and mammals around everywhere. Farming, doing business, hanging out, but most importantly, being around and making noise. And Zootopia was… Zootopia. Large cities never sleep, especially when it came to her two rather colorful neighbors.

And yet now, with her only half-paying attention as Nick was telling a story to James and Dahlia, Judy found it rather silly how randomly she noticed the lack of noise.

"-Carrots? Hey, Fluff!"

Judy stopped, blinking when she realized that Nick was trying to get her attention. "Yeah, Nick?"

He jabbed a thumb in James' direction, who had his camera out again and was busy snapping away at the ocean. "Wolfy spotted those rocks again," Nick explained casually.

"Sure, and with the sun not that high up, this makes for a great shot," James added, squinting through the view finder. "Last I checked, but you can't get a view like this in Zootopia. Too many buildings and too many people."

"Speaking of people," Dahlia muttered, "where did Trigger go?"

Judy's head shot to look down the trail, and there he was, obliviously walking away from them. Thinking about it, she started to recall that she couldn't actually positively say that he had been involved in their latest bout of stories. "Um, but I don't think he noticed that we stopped…" She was about to call out for the pilot to wait for them when Dahlia beat her to it. But despite even Nick and James joining in when the first attempt failed to alert Trigger, the pilot was either too far away to hear, or too lost in his own mind to notice their shouting at him.

A third option, one which Judy was desperately hoping was wrong as soon as she thought of it, was that he was deliberately ignoring them in some sort of attempt to make a break for it. She told herself that she was being silly, that he would never attempt to do something this stupid, especially out here where he had nowhere to go. But then again, she had been a cop for about three years already. She had seen mammals do some very stupid things.

"Don't worry about leaving me behind, I'll catch up," James told the others, already placing the camera back in the backpack.

Speaking of silly, Judy wondered why they didn't already start to catch up to the pilot, but while they didn't break into a run, he wasn't all that far away, which allowed them to start gaining on him with a brisk walk. Getting closer, she was glad that they weren't actually running after him, because that would have meant that their panting would have prevented her from listening in on him.

For despite being alone, Trigger was most definitely talking. Not loudly, but talking nevertheless.

Slowing down to a more manageable pace, both of Judy's ears were pointed in his direction, straining to him.

"_-__didn't do it! I__t wasn't me__-"_

Judy frowned, and quickly checked her phone. No, no signal here. She glanced at the pilot again. Even from behind she could see that his head was tilted down towards the ground, ears completely flat against his hat, and tail stiff, tucked tightly between his legs, rather than swaying in a relaxed manner. "Is he talking to himself?" she muttered, causing the others to glance at her.

"Talking? What's he saying?" Dahlia asked quietly, only for Judy to shush at her to keep the noise down.

"Hey, why'd we stop?" James caught up, coming to a halt due to the trail being blocked off. "Trigger's still ahead of us, shouldn't we be catching up?" Since they were closer now, he tried calling out again. "Hey! Trigger!"

Rather than turning around or stopping, Trigger's reaction was much more unexpected. Judy thought she heard the telltale crackle of the TAME collar going off, but she wasn't actually sure or not if she was simply imagining it. But, that wasn't actually important. Because what she definitely did not imagine was the pained cry from the pilot, arm snapping to his neck, only for his shout to be cut short as he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes in a sickening crunch.

The cops all looked at each other, eyes wide in shock when this time, as one, they broke into a run, reaching Trigger after only a few tense moments.

The pilot wasn't passed out, kicking up dust as he withered in pain, a horrible combination of pained whines, gasps of air, and choked gurgles escaping his muzzle as his arm clawed desperately at the collar.

Judy reached him first, hopping straight to a stop by his head as she grabbed the collar, searching for the locking mechanism. "Trigger? Are you all right? What happened?" He didn't react to her presence, eyes pressed shut and still struggling to breath, paw failing to pry the collar off. Judy could only imagine what kind of pain his neck must be in, her own paws fighting his in her desperate attempt to find where the collar's clips connected into each other. "Who has the remote for this thing?" she demanded, glancing behind her to where the others stopped short to prevent themselves from only getting in her way. "_James_!" Judy glared at the wolf as he fumbled with his backpack.

"Working on it, Hopps! Just a moment-!" Of course the one time they really needed the remote close, it had been buried deep within his backpack. "-Got it!"

With a beep, the collar disconnected, dropping down into Judy's paw. She instantly tossed it aside, instead going for Trigger's neck as she tried to pry his paw away from his neck to take a look at the damage. But despite his still uneven and pained wheezing, he had a firm grip on his neck, and Judy didn't want to risk hurting him by forcing his paw out of the way. That was when a large paw from Dahlia placed itself on her shoulder.

"Hopps? Judy? Move aside, I got this."

With a nod, Judy let Trigger go and stepped aside into Nick's waiting arms, letting Dahlia step in with a small first aid kit. Still, she tried again to get the pilot's attention. "Trigger? What happened?" He still didn't answer, but at least now he opened up one of his eyes, its pupil locking in on both of hers. Taking a step closer, Judy tried again. "Trigger..? What happened? Why did the collar go off?

"...Trigger-?"


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21: End of the Walk**

"I'm going to need you to lower your arm so that I can take a look at your neck," Dahlia said gently, her voice breaking the gaze lock Trigger had with Judy.

But instead of doing as she instructed, her words had the complete opposite effect as he suddenly tore backwards, scrambling away from them in a stumbling crawl, one paw still tightly pressed against his neck. Rocks and dirt flew in all directions as his limbs kicked up the ground around him, failing to find traction in the lose ground. A particularly loose rock gave way beneath him, sending the pilot straight to the ground in a pained and angry growl, interrupted only by his muzzle hitting the dirt. He right away started to get up again, though now noticeably slower and even with less coordination than before.

Which gave Fangmeyer the perfect opportunity to intervene. Lunging past him, she let Trigger's own momentum push himself into her waiting arms, right away locking him into a secure embrace. He tried to escape this entrapment, but was no match for her superior size and strength. Ignoring his mixture of pained whines and angry growling, Dahlia held on firmly, waiting for him to tire out. "It's just us, Trigger!" she grunted, her muzzle just about touching one of his ears, but not knowing if he was aware enough to understand her. "Stop fighting! It's me!" Not quite right away, but eventually, he did stop trying to escape. Feeling the force he was exerting on her cease, Dahlia allowed her embrace to ease off.

Trigger slipped away from her, crawling away slowly and stopping a short distance away. Settling down on a bare patch of ground, he hugged his kneed tightly, burying his head into them.

With a heavy sigh, Dahlia shuffled over to his side. "I still need to take a look," she tried again. "Trigger, please. Will you allow me to take a look at your neck?" He didn't answer her, nor react in any manner at all for that matter. Placing a paw on his head, she was grateful when he at least didn't jerk away this time around. Pulling lightly, he only offered faint resistance to her moving his head back and to the side, revealing his neck to the bright afternoon sunlight. She winced, not liking what she saw.

"H-How…" Trigger's voice was course and gravely. "...How bad is it?"

His sudden question had caught Dahlia off guard, neither expecting him to speak up now, nor to get straight to the point. Taking a few moments to gather her thoughts, she decided to not beat around the bush with her answer. He was a trained combat pilot, not a scared civilian after a car accident. Trigger can handle the truth. "The fur's burned down to the skin," she admitted, resisting the urge to part his fur to get a better look. She could only imagine how much his neck was hurting at the moment, and didn't want to make things even worse. "Which is burned as well, although my best estimate is that it's not deep. But still, that's… I'm used to dealing with burns caused by flame, not electricity." Adjusting his head a bit, she pondered as to what to do, before using her other paw to shift through the contents of the first aid kit she was now feeling very much vindicated in deciding to shove into her own backpack at the last minute. "I'm going to cover the burn up with something that should help," she said gently. "Until it starts acting, it'll hurt, a lot."

Trigger winced, only giving the slightest of nods. "I know."

"All right then. Well, here it goes..." Knowing that, even prepared for it, that the pain will still cause Trigger to jerk away from her, she propped up his head against her paw. As expected, as soon as she pressed down the bandage to the wound, he let out an unintentional wail of pain, limbs pressing hard against her as he tried to push himself away from her. "I know it hurts, but you need to stay still for me!" she told him sternly. "Let me work and it'll be over soon."

Gritting his teeth in a pained grimace, Trigger forced himself to stay put. Still, it was clear by his squirming and how much Dahlia had to struggle to keep him in place that wrapping his neck with the bandage was causing him a lot of pain.

Watching Dahlia work, and Trigger struggle against her, Judy couldn't help but feel completely useless at all of this. She became a cop specifically because she was the type of person not to just sit around when someone needed help. She didn't even let the fact that she was a rabbit stop her from pursuing that goal! And yet, as her sensitive ears completely failed to block out Trigger's whines of pain, what was she doing? Stare dumbly and let it all happen. Clenching her paws closed, she made up her mind. Taking a long, deep breath to calm her nerves, she tapped on Nick's arm. "Nick? Let me go please. I want to talk to him. Try and help him."

Instead, he only gripped her tighter. "I wouldn't if I were you," Nick warned.

She glanced up at him quickly, stunned by his comment. "N-no? Why not? Nick, _listen to him_!" Even with Dahlia almost done, Trigger was sounding very much at his limit with dealing with the pain right at his neck. "Nick? Let me go." Relenting, she felt his arms unwrap from her.

"Done." Securing the bandage, Fangmeyer let Trigger go as well. Collapsing to the ground, he sputtered and coughed, spitting at the ground as his paw again clutched at the wound. Dahlia reached out and pulled him back into a sitting position, where he remained as he fought to regain his breathing.

Rushing to him, Judy stopped by his side, placing her paw on his shoulder in a small attempt to try and comfort him. He looked at her, alerted to her presence only when she touched him. She tried to smile, hoping that the gesture didn't come across as forceful as she felt she had to work at it. "How are you…" It was at this moment that Judy realized that she didn't even know what to say. "You okay?"

A low growl was her only warning as his fist came flying at her head from the side.

Judy ducked, a combination of police training and natural rabbit instinct preventing her from getting slugged, feeling the air move just beyond the tips of her ears. Then she heard his cry of pain. Darting back up, she was horrified to see Fangmeyer's paw jammed into his neck. "Wh- No, Dahlia! Let him go! Don't hurt him!"

Dahlia growled but let the pressure off his neck. "I know you're hurting and are pissed off, but you try to swing at any of us even just one more time, and the next thing going into your neck will be my claws. Straight for your jugular. Am I understood, _Trigger_?" He growled back defiantly, trying to escape her grasp, only for his struggles to cease as soon as she pressed into his neck again in warning. "_Am I understood_?" She only let go when he finally relented and shrank away in submission. He shuffled away from her only to go back to hugging his kneed, muzzle hidden away once more. With a frown, she approached and, while gently, forced his head back up to take a look at the burn, afraid that she caused more damage. To her relief, the bandage was intact and unharmed, so she resisted the urge to poke around some more with it. Reaching inter his dropped backpack, she pulled out a bottle of water. Opening it up, she held it up for him. "Here, drink this. Could help a little." Ever so slowly, he looked up and grabbed the bottle. Taking a swig, he instantly started to cough violently succeeding only in spitting the water out in all directions. Even as a little bit of it splashed on her, Dahlia didn't move away from his side.

"Please… Let me be alone…" Trigger rasped when the latest coughing attack ceased. Forcing himself to down a bit more water, he grimaced as he set the bottle down, returning to hugging his knees with his muzzle buried between them, gloomy eyes staring off at the ground in front of him.

Judy again came closer, glancing nervously at Dahlia. The tiger, sensing what she wanted to do, gave a slow nod of approval. "Um, Trigger?" While his eyes didn't move towards her, his ears did swivel towards her voice. So with uncertainty still in her voice, she tried again. "Please… We really should know, just what happened. I mean, you were just walking fine, and then just suddenly, without warning, your collar went off. And not just lightly… I mean, you _dropped_! Just like that. Like a sack of carrots." His ears were still pointed at her, so at least he was listening. But otherwise, Trigger didn't react to her in any way. "You never reacted to the collar like that before. It's something I expect from a prep being tased, but, not you, and not from that stupid collar."

"It was a full blast, Hopps," James mumbled from behind her. Trigger must have also heard him for he shrank up even more, eyes narrowing in anger. "I just checked the remote for its status messages. The collar sent out a full charge. That's why he dropped as he did. It _was_ basically a taser shot straight to the neck."

Judy looked over Trigger with pity. "Didn't it send any warning?" Not like it mattered, they had all been too far away to distract Trigger even if there had been a warning from the collar.

"I didn't see any. My guess is that no, there was no warning. Collar itself doesn't say anything except for battery remaining. Sorry, Trigger."

With a heavy sigh, Judy tried yet again. "Trigger, please. We just want to help you. What happened?"

This time, he did move his muzzle to look at her. But even as he stared at her with a deep pain in his eyes, he still didn't say anything. The two of them stared at one another, Judy feeling very awkward at the whole deal. Backing down first, she let her eyes drop to the ground, and when she looked back up at him again, his own eyes were now closed as he reburied his muzzle between his knees, hugging himself tighter in an attempt to hide from the world. Judy felt terrible as she reached out for him, but didn't have the nerve to let her paw actually touch him, nor to try and speak up again.

"Hey, Strikes, I've figured it out." Nick came over as Trigger looked up at him with a disbelieving look. "I'm afraid I have no experience with this, but," if Judy would have been looking at her partner, she would have noticed that despite the tense situation, he was smirking. But what did cause her to worry about him was the instant recognition of the tone Nick was using. An all too familiar, guaranteed to get on her nerves, playful tone that she had learned to dread. _Hey, Flash, wanna hear a joke?_ No, not now! Please, why now-?

"From what I saw, I think that you got... _triggered_!"

Judy's jaw dropped, swiveling around with the others, staring at disbelief at the buffoon she called her partner. Of course she knew about that terrible pun - the whole precinct did. His name, combined with how the TAME collars work, and the joke practically wrote itself. But for them to laugh about it when he wasn't around just to let it out of their system was one thing. But for Nick to go and blurt it out at a time like this? For the first time since… ever, Judy was genuinely angry enough at him as to be at a loss for words. Of all the times he couldn't take a situation seriously when needed, why now of all times? But the only thing that stopped her from pulling Nick aside for a stern disciplining was a single, muffled snort of a laugh... from Trigger of all people.

"Wilde," Trigger muttered, voice hoarse and still very much in pain, but anger only barely audible over his amusement. "_What_ _the hell was that_?" There was an odd sense of humor in his voice, but there was no mistaking the raw anger in it as well.

Nick stared back, smirk turning into a wide grin as he wiggled his eyebrows at the pilot. "You heard me, Strikes."

Growling, Trigger picked up a rock by his side and flung it at Nick's direction. His lackluster aim was way off, and it bounced harmlessly off the ground, not that he had meant to hit the fox in the first place. "You really are something, Wilde. Couldn't you have just let me be miserable by myself instead of butting in and ruining it?"

"I'm a fox" Nick asked calmly. "You, being a coyote, especially ought to be more than aware that we're only good at ruining what people want to do."

Trigger grumbled again, glaring at the horizon. "Yeah, I suppose you can say that," he relented with a heavy sigh. Tearing his eyes away from the ocean, he picked up the bottle again, this time succeeding in taking a swig without collapsing into a coughing fit.

"Well, now that you're talking again," Nick continued, "in all seriousness. What happened with your neck? How's it feeling?"

"Why don't I stab you in the neck let you find out personally?" Trigger answered coldly. "How do you think it feels?"

Nick winced as he felt around his own neck, imagining exactly that.

"Trigger-" Judy didn't want him focusing on his pain. Besides, if he was talking, then perhaps it was safe for her to try again. "-What were you thinking just before the collar went off?"

"Hopps," Dahlia warned. Now wasn't the time nor place for it. Just because the collar was now safe in Jame's backpack didn't mean that they could all forget that they were still on a dusty trail by the coast, who knew how many miles from the safety of their car. "Not now."

"No, it's fine," Trigger corrected her. "Well, it's not, but…" he fell silent as his eyes clouded over, losing focus of the world around him.

Judy decided to move closer and sat down next to him. Feeling less anger at Nick now, she patter the ground next to her for him to join her, which he did quietly. As Dahlia and James took their own places on the other side of him, if Trigger noticed that he was now surrounded by the cops, he didn't react.

"It-It was a mission I flew in," he started to explain slowly, his voice barely above a whisper. "Early in the war. Was still with my first squad. I… I can't go into any details, but… it started out well. We cleared out the Urusian opposition…. achieved our initial objectives… Then the drones came. One of the arsenal birds was nearby, and… We hoped to avoid having to fight them, but it wasn't a surprise when they showed up. Even still, the mission continued. We still thought that we were going to achieve the main goal of the mission, but… in a single moment… just like that…" Whatever it was that had happened, Trigger wasn't able to voice it out, his voice morphing into a high pitched whimper only for him to clamp his muzzle shut.

They were only able to watch helplessly as he pawed at the top of his head in agitation, only his hat preventing the claws from damaging his fur. What was even worse, though, were the growls of raw anger that came from deep within his throat as Trigger struggled with whatever was going through his mind.

And whatever it was, that explained the collar going off.

"Trigger…" James warned. Even though Trigger was no longer in danger of shocking himself, it still wasn't good for him to lose control of himself like this. "Just calm down now. Tell us what happened." He could guess what happened, no one reacts like this when a mission ends successfully. But if Trigger could still say in his own words why he was reacting so negatively to it, even now with all the time and distance between him and whatever happened that day...

"I- They…" Another whimper escaped him as he struggled to find the right words. "I was blamed for… something that I didn't do," Trigger finally admitted. "The whole mission was a complete loss, and they _blamed me_ for it." He swore loudly, breathing heavily before calming down again enough to finish retelling the events. "Didn't matter that just the mission prior to it, I had been saving their tails from those damned drones," Trigger spat out, "didn't stop them from being all '_Trigger was the closest!_' and '_That __fucking__coyote did it!'_" Growling, he swatted at a fly that chose that very moment to land on his nose, jumping to his legs as he chased it off, all of his anger directed at the small creature.

Quickly giving up at chasing the fly, he looked up at the sun over the water. "If I was the closest, then where the hell were you all at?" Trigger suddenly shouted. "We all had a damned job to do, Knocker, not just me! _Our_ job, not mine! And where the fuck were you? Chasing the one drone not swarming all over the objective? Why the hell was I the closest?" Growling again, he leaned down and pawed up a large stone off the ground. Running forward, he got as close to the cliff's edge as he could, only stopped by a few short shrubs. "How's this for close!" With an angry yell, he tossed the rock high over his head towards the sun, staring at it at it arced up, then down as gravity pulled it down below the cliff and to the water below. As it disappeared past the rocky edge, his ears followed its downwards trajectory, flattening on top of his head and then followed by the rest of him as Trigger fell to his knees and just… gave up. "It wasn't me," he whimpered again, one of his paws slowly rubbing at the sore spot on his neck. "I didn't do it…"

He remained where he was, staring at the ground, only glancing away when a set of paws gently grabbed his arm.

"Trigger, you're scaring us," Judy pleaded, tugging him back. "Please, at the very least, get away from the ledge."

"Huh?" Trigger glanced back, noticing that sure enough, just a short few shrubs past him, the ground dropped suddenly into the ocean below. "Oh, right…" He let himself be pulled back up by Dahlia, who came over to help the bunny. Allowing them to set him down next to James, he hugged himself again, leaning against the officer as he stared miserably at the ground in front of him. "I uh, didn't want to lose control," he admitted. "Just… sort of happened."

James rubbed Trigger's back in a circular motion. "Don't worry about it," he said gently. "You think us cops haven't seen something like this before? Nah, just another day at work."

Despite himself, Trigger grunted, but in an amused manner that even brought out a hint of a grin to his muzzle. "What? Are you implying that running into a war legend is a regular occurrence in Zootopia?"

James rolled his eyes. "Well, no, if you want to phrase it that way…"

"But Carrots here did uncover a city-wide conspiracy on her first week of work," Nick added, "so when you really get down to it, Zootopia's Wonder Bunny and the Pilot with the Three Strikes, together in one place? Even with just the cops in Zootopia alone, there are how many of us? How many precincts full of beat cops, each with three different complete shifts? What are the odds?"

Trigger started to chuckle, an odd juxtaposition to how he was acting just moment before. "Tell me about it!"

"And if you read the news, according to both Ocelotia and Urusia together, they claim that you can turn the tide of battle just by showing up," Nick continued, "A real miracle worker! Just don't even bring Carrots with you to battle, the world just might explode."

"Yeah, yeah," Trigger mumbled, although now with far less amusement. "The pilot with the Three Strikes, savior of Ocelotia, and the only reason why Oured isn't flying the Urusian flag right now." He grunted in disgust. "Eventually they might even realize that I'm still only just a pilot in a single outdated fighter plane." He picked up another pebble and flung it off in front of him lazily. "There's a reason why I let Count read the propaganda, well, news for me." He shook his head. "I know I'm trying hard to avoid reading about the mammals that I've killed, but it's impossible to avoid. And other then that, some of the stuff they claim Three Strikes can do…"

"At the rate you're going, Strikes" Nick offered with a sly grin, "you'll start turning water into wine. Or jet fuel."

"Nick, stop it!" Judy scolded, striking at his paws with one of hers. "That's rude."

"But it's not wrong," Trigger corrected with a scowl. "Well, don't compare me to Jesus, but you can can take your pick of gods, as far as what both Ocelotia and Urusia are writing. But you would also think that they can do a quick online search to find out what a fighter can and cannot do, but no, apparently it's too much work. Personally, what I would give to let Count get the three lines instead of me. Not like he always brags how he's really the better pilot than I am. But instead... It finally happened."

Judy glanced at him curiously, but worried due to the tone he used. "Um, What exactly happened?"

"A total mental breakdown," Trigger mumbled nonchalantly, rubbing at the bandage around his neck. "Was always afraid something like this would happen, ever since landing in the city, really. Honestly, I was surprised that it didn't happen far sooner. Although... I didn't expect it to actually hurt so much. But, if I had to admit it, it really was only a matter of time."

"Come on now, Trigger, don't be like that," Judy reached out and gently rubbed the fur on his arm. "It wasn't inevitable. I realize now that perhaps we weren't able to help you out as much as we should have, but I'm sure that, had we a second chance at this, things would have ended up much better."

He grinned down at her in a grateful manner, but shook his head in disagreement. "No, I don't see a way for it to not have happened. If anything, It really did should have happened sooner. There were plenty of times already where... I guess I just got lucky. Such as when Wolfor- James took me to the store yesterday, you know, to get the food and whatnot for today." She glanced over, wondering what this last comment was about. But instead of elaborating on it, Trigger fell into a silence, giving James the opportunity to answer for him.

"Right, that…" James bit his lip in unease as he recalled the event. He had hoped to avoid bringing it up, and being honest, until now, it had been really easy to forget about it with all of the talking about random nonsense that was throughout their hike. "We were going through the isles, and Trigger was just… dazed. Lost, perhaps." He leaned over so that the others can hear him better. "You know how mammals are after a nasty traffic accident, basically just like that. So anyways, I had him point out what he himself needed and then sent him back to the car to wait for me there to at least get him away from the crowds."

Judy brushed at Trigger's fur again as she stared at him, concern on her face. "What was so bad about a store? It's hardly comparable to a traffic collision."

"Judy-" James warned. This wasn't something he wanted to explain to her right now, but her inexperience with these matters was starting to show.

"-But..." Judy glanced nervously at the wolf before continuing to address Trigger. "It's just a store! You've must have been inside them plenty of times. What was so wrong about this one?"

"Nothing!" Trigger complained, breath hitching. "But- I mean, that's exactly what was wrong with it! You- you've gone to the grocery store how many times? Don't even give it a second thought about going in. So why should I be worried about going into one? But when I was in there... I never expected to feel so... That everything in there was just so… so _normal!_" He grunted in surprise as James pulled him into a one-armed hug. "We were in the store, and, when you asked me if I was feeling all right…" he continued, talking directly to the wolf now, "I… I didn't even recognize you! I don't know how to describe it… It was like… like I knew that you were someone that I _should_ know, but another part of me was thinking, at the same time, 'who is this wolf and why is he talking to me'? It was like- no... I _did_ forget who you were! Then I did finally recognize you, and I got so scared!" He suddenly kicked at the dirt in front of him in anger. "I can't even do something so simple as go to the store anymore without breaking apart!" he yelled, his breathing increasing even more. "So… stupid!" His floundering only ceased due to James pulling him even tighter into his embrace to the point where he wasn't able to flail about anymore.

"Easy there. Slow, deep breaths," James ordered, tone stern but gentle. "Relax. Just allow yourself to calm down. Gently does it." He continued to rub the pilot's back as Trigger nodded and did as he was told, taking long, deep and forceful breaths. "Feeling better?" he asked, patiently waiting for Trigger's breathing to return to a more natural state.

"I… sorry," Trigger mumbled, ears flat in shame when he recovered enough to talk coherently again. He allowed his head to lean into Jame's shoulder, staring off ahead into the distance.

"Don't be," James said gently. "If anything, it's only natural that you're reacting like this. I, for one, can only imagine what it's like fighting day after day in a war like the one you were in." He placed his other arm on Trigger's shoulder and rotated both of them so that they can look at each other muzzle to muzzle. "Trigger, listen to me closely. You were probably told this before, but I think you need to hear it again. In the precinct, we have mammals who specialize in these things. Us, here? We can only help you out so much, but we're not the experts around here when it comes to these things. But if you talk to Bogo about it, he'll be able to get someone who knows what to do a lot better than any of us. You can't just keep these things bottled up, you need to talk to someone. And yes, even if you will be leaving us very soon."

Trigger was only able to maintain eye contact for a few moments before looking away. "I… I can't."

James gripped his shoulder harder, trying not to groan in frustration. Why did he have to be so stubborn about it? Instead, he took a quick but deep breath to calm himself down. "And why not?"

"B-because… You don't even know my name!" Trigger argued, wide, frightful eyes snapping back to James'. "H-How can you help me when you don't even know my damned name?"

The wolf sighed, pulling him into a tight hug, ignoring his attempts to escape the embrace. "I'm not asking you to tell us what you're not allowed to," he muttered gently into his ear, "but that's not a good reason as to why we can't help you either. You just need to let us, that's the biggest obstacle here." He extended one of his arms out, silently waving for the others to join him. They did instantly, without any hesitation. While there were a few awkward moments as everyone tried to find a good spot, Trigger didn't complain or growl in anger as he found himself the center of a large group hug. And so, for several long moments, they all remained in that tight group, together.

"Why… why are you all being so nice to me?" Trigger finally asked, voice quiet and… afraid?. "You all know that- that I've killed people. I'm a murderer! I keep reminding you that! And yet, I mean… yet you are all still… like you care..."

"That's because we _do_ care," Judy offered in turn, scratching at one of his ears, one of the few places she could reach from between Nick and James. "Despite what you did or didn't do, we care. Even Nick, when he's not being a sarcastic git. Right, Nick?"

"Sure do," Nick answered, still grinning his sly smirk. "In fact, we care so much that we're going to suffocate you."

"_Nick_!" Judy's paw curled into a fist. This time she really was going to hit him, and hit him so hard that Bogo would be forced to put her on parking duty for the rest of the year, but if he did then it would so be worth it because her partner really couldn't get a clue about-

She hesitated when a pained, but unmistakable chuckle came from Trigger.

"I uh… you guys are actually making me rather claustrophobic right now," he admitted. "I really appreciate you all being here, but… I could use some air."

Since it was his request, the cops split away from the hug, sitting down nearby but far enough to give him his personal space back. He rubbed his eyes dry with the back of his arm, wincing as some salt got inside. Blinking away the pain, he stared out at the water. "I honestly forgot how pretty it was over here," he mumbled, almost silently. "Of all the places to finally get it over with and have that meltdown, I can't really name anything better." He hugged his knees again, but this time, it was only to aid with supporting his stance rather than to comfort himself. Sure enough, he placed his muzzle on top of his knees so that he can still see past them, rather than burying it into them like before. "And this certainly beats having Count around when to finally happened." He lifted his head back up just long enough to shake it, chuckling quietly at himself. "Like I said, a total mental breakdown."

"Glad to know that getting Nighthowler poisoning was good for something," James said, his own grin slowly forming as he tried to lighten the mood a bit further. "Gave us a day off to kike around in. But I think you really ought to be thanking the doc for this one."

"You didn't have to bring me here, though," Trigger said. "But you did, despite how much of a pawful Count and I've been… Especially me." While he still continued to stare out at the ocean, there was no mistaking the grateful glint in his eyes. One of his paws went up to his neck, slowly rubbing at the bandage. "And as much as my neck hates it, I uh, I'm really glad you guys allowed me to come. I can't even begin to describe how much better actually being here compared to just staring endlessly at a map." He rubbed at his neck again, somehow managing to wince and grin at the others at the same time. "For better or for worse, the entire day has felt like a dream. And at least for for the next several hours, I don't mind not having to worry about waking up."

Dahlia looked at her phone to check the time. They hadn't been stuck here for too long still, but she was worried that she was now looking at time that they couldn't actually afford to waste by sitting around. Glancing at the ground only confirmed that her shadow was noticeably longer than even when they were splashing on the beach not too long ago. "Listen, Trigger, I hate to be 'that one', but I think we really should get going if you're up to it." She smirked at him. "Not like you haven't been telling us that the entire day or anything."

His ears dropped in shame, but there was a hint of a self-depreciating grin on his muzzle. "I really was like that, wasn't I?" he mumbled sheepishly, still rubbing at his neck. "Can we stay for... five more minutes? I mean, look! You can even see those lousy-cop islands still." Despite his grin, it was still evident that he was still in a lot of pain, and needed the time to recompose himself more properly.

Dahlia let out a sigh. "Okay, we can do five more minutes. But you'll need to let go of that wrap, or you'll only mess it up, and the burn underneath it. And _that_ will hurt even more." At least he did as he was told, lowering his paw and scooting over to where he can sit a bit more comfortably and stare out at the sights around them some more. She, in turn, took the opportunity to place the small first aid kit she used back in the backpack. She froze, when in the process of putting it back inside, she spotted the TAME collar stashed away in there was well. She didn't remember placing it inside, but there it was. Glancing over to the pilot, still staring out with an oblivious smile on his muzzle, she knew what she needed to do.

"Listen, Trigger."

He glanced at her, biting his lower lip in order to suppress an urge to whimper at the sight of the collar in her paw.

"No! I- I'm not asking you to put it back on," Dahlia quickly explained. "What I wanted to say was that, I don't want you to wear it for the rest of today. So don't worry about having to put it back on. At the very least, you need to keep your neck clear." Hiding the device back in her backpack where it won't get in the way, she added, "to be honest, we should have taken that thing off the moment we got into the car," she admitted. "I know that you're supposed to keep it on, but… it's a TAME collar! You're not supposed to be forced to wear it on… Well, what else can we call today if not your only day off?"

Trigger gave a small, grateful smile at her, paw unconsciously rising back up to his neck. But he caught himself and lowered it before he could start rubbing at the spot again. "Thanks, but really, it's not your fault," he mumbled back. "Don't blame yourself for some stupid rule my CO came up with to make my life hell when he's not around."

Dahlia winced. "Trigger, don't try to deflect the blame. Hopps- Judy repeatedly pleaded to both me and Bogo about these collars. We both kept forcing her to tolerate you and Count being forced to wear these, even as she saw first hand how much they were interfering with just being able to do regular things. James also kept me informed how you held up with these, but… out of the four of us, I was the one who kept pressing the hardest to just do as we were told. As the most senior officer, I saw it as my job to keep the others in line even as they tried to fight against something that even I agree is completely wrong. But… because we were told that you and Count had to wear the collars, I listened and forced the others to step in line. Between Judy, and James... even Wilde-" her eyes locked with Nick's for a brief moment. "You should have seen him. Sure, when you or Count were around he kept his mouth shut and just played along. But when the two of us were in private, you should have- I don't think I ever saw him angrier before or since about anything."

Judy grinned as she leaned against her partner, patting his leg in approval. Despite Nick going out of his way to appear to be the least emotional member of their group, she knew that deep down, he absolutely still cared. And even better, hearing from someone else that he would try to act on it even when she wasn't around, well, that's why she chose him as her partner.

His paw again rubbing at the bandage, Trigger stated at the ocean in an attempt to avoid looking at any of the officers. "But I… like it here," he tried to argue. "It's what I told Judy and James on our first outing on a patrol. Between feeling like a prisoner and actually being one, I prefer being able to go outside. To feel the sun on my fur, the wind…" he tugged at his shirt, by now mostly dry. "The feeling of getting dunked in the sea? Nothing moping about inside the precinct could compare. I said it before, and I will keep saying it: This," he waved his arm around at the world around them. "You can't compare this to a map on a computer screen. When we get back, try comparing this right now to the low resolution, still and lifeless, pixelated representation you'll get there! And if McKinsey says that I have to wear some stupid shock collar to be able to experience the real deal?" he let out a frustrated sigh. "Don't get me wrong, given the choice, then I absolutely won't wear the stupid collar. But do you really think Bogo would have allowed you to bring me here if he had found out that you were all sneaking the collars off us when he wasn't looking? Well, he might, but there's no way that McKinsey would have tolerated this if he had seen the reports. Which, from what I understand, the log files were in fact sent to him, just to make sure. Personally I think he enjoys imagining how much Count and I buzz ourselves."

Trigger started to laugh, but in a very unamused, frustrated sense. "So ironically enough, I think we both are getting what we want out of me being here. I get to visit here again, and he… he gets to read about how I nearly burned my own head off doing so. So in a weird way, I guess what I am saying is that if you asked us both if this was worth it? Was him being unusually kind enough to allow this trip for me worth it on his end? I think we both would say, especially now for him, only despite now for me, that yes, if given the chance to make the choice again, I would still want to go." He stopped talking for a moment, slowly looking over at Dahlia. "I guess what I actually wanted to say is that while I am not asking you not to hate these collars, I don't want you to beat yourself up over having me wear it."

"It still wasn't right of us to have you wear the collar," Judy said, butting in. "Dahlia said it: we should have taken it off in the car. Especially since you'll be leaving us soon, and won't be around long enough with us to suffer the consequences. What was Bogo going to do? Force you to stay around longer?"

"He could always do something to you, not to me." Trigger suddenly let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, well, besides, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Even I didn't think to ask you to take it off until now either." He picked up another pebble and flicked away towards the trail. "Besides, what's with all of your sudden interest in how I'm doing? We didn't come all the way out here just for my benefit. How's that recovery from nighthowlers going for you, James? Nick?"

While Wolford frowned at being reminded of his poisoning, Nick flashed a grin and reached out to thump Trigger over the shoulder. "When the doc said to walk around for the day, I don't think she had quite this in mind," he answered, "I can already tell that I'm going to hate you so much tomorrow when I'll wake up and discover my legs have been replaced by wooden stumps." If Judy will try to go back to the whole collar business, he was hoping for not having to explain to her that this sudden change in subject was, while lousy, still a very clear signal from Trigger that he was done talking about it. And Nick was more than ready to agree that this wasn't the best place to start an actual argument over. They came out here to have fun in the sun, and if it meant that Nick had to milk his legs getting sore, then he was sure going to do it.

Especially since he didn't have to milk the being sore part all of that much. His legs had started to complain ever since the descent from the hill with the table, and as much as Nick didn't feel like admitting it, Trigger getting shocked offered them this great opportunity to take a break and sit down for a little like they were doing now. But luckily for him, Judy didn't try to revert the subject.

Instead, she playfully punched his leg, earning herself a yelp of complaint from him. "Nick, don't exaggerate! You'll be fine, you big baby." She rolled her eyes when he flashed her a grin and winked. "Hopelessly dumb fox."

"Nah, I'm still a sly fox," Nick corrected her with another wink. 'But I do know how to act like a dumb fox. Just don't confuse the two."

Dahlia nudged James. "What about you? Now you're being awfully quiet." She rubbed her paw along his shoulder as she noticed that it was his turn to be the upset person in the group. "James?"

He fidgeted nervously, letting out a nervous grin. "I was just thinking that I would have preferred this not to have happened because of um, that incident at the park. It was such a close call, and more of just dumb luck that no one else saw me." He chuckled, gently brushing Dahlia's paw off. "I know I'm being silly now, but I guess I'm still getting over how embarrassing it all was. I was in my uniform! What if someone had seen me? Or worse, recorded it?"

"It wasn't exactly something to be ashamed of, James," she tried to correct him, only to get herself a snort and a glare of disbelief from her partner. "It was just your body's natural reaction to a new and barely tested medication, acting on also a new drug, now in a previously unknown form. No one expected you to just… flush it all out." She mentally winced at herself when he visibly shrank in genuine shame at the memories she brought up. "Okay, so maybe it was really embarrassing," Dahlia relented. "But you're feeling good now, right?"

His shame changed back to a grin, even if half-forced. "Yeah, sure, if you don't count the fact that I don't think I was able to feel my legs for the past half hour at least. Nick's correct about them being stumps tomorrow." He jerked his head towards the pilot next to them. "But I take it that it was all according to plan, am I right, Trigger?"

"Hey, genius, you were the one that decided to pick me up and dump me in the ocean," Trigger shot back, his tone returning to that playful competitiveness from earlier in the day. "How was I supposed to know you weren't up for it?" But as he stood up, he had to bend down and rub his own sore leg muscles. "But if it makes you feel any better, I'm gonna hate this tomorrow too," he added. "And yes, I know that I was the one that insisted that we go this way. It's been, um, too long since I got to go out on a long day like today, forgot how much it can hurt when you're out of practice. N-not that that's a bad thing!" He rubbed his neck nervously as the other paw reached down for his discarded backpack. "But, well, okay then I guess... We ready to go?"

Judy shared a smirk with Nick, grabbing her backpack as he also started to get ready to start walking again. "Guess our impatient pilot's back. Well, no sense in delaying the inevitable, let's get going then."

"Ready when you are, pup!" James announced, slapping Trigger's shoulder for good measure. The pilot grumbled but his return punch of annoyance was much the same as what Judy would throw at Nick when he would start to annoy her. In other words, it was all in good fun.

"I have a name, you know," Trigger grumbled, wincing as he rubbed his now aching shoulder.

Nick grinned, eyeing him with a humorous glint in his eyes. "Didn't you complain that we don't know your name just moments ago?"

Trigger's jaw dropped as he raised a finger to try and counter that remark. "I uh, okay… Dang, you- you got me there."

"Well, hate to break it to you, but it really wasn't hard at all," Nick retorted, bumping fists with James. Trigger was about to say something in his defense when they were all interrupted by an annoyed shout from Judy.

"Boys! Weren't you the ones insisting that we go?" Sure enough, she was off ahead with Dahlia, impatiently tapping her foot on the trail as they waited for the group to reform.

"How did they get in front of us?" Nick asked, dumbfounded. He swore that, especially with it being Trigger who had gotten up first, that they were in the lead. But no, there was his partner, still yelling at him. "Well, better get going then," he muttered, rolling his eyes at her direction. "Personally, I think she's getting hungry. Carrots can get cranky like that when she doesn't get enough of her… carrots."

"I heard that!" Her glaring daggers would have been more effective if it wasn't for the wide grin Judy was sporting.

"Everyone, can we not argue about this?" Trigger complained, suddenly serious again, shoving past Dahlia and Judy to take point. The officers exchanged a quick look amongst themselves as they followed after him. It was understandable for him to still be upset, but it was still rather off-putting just how quickly his mood was swinging between laughing with rest of them and falling into a gloomy silence.

Judy shuffled herself over to Fangmeyer, hoping to try and discuss this with her, but as soon as she started talking, she found herself being cut off. "-and I mean, if you get down to it, especially when he said-" When you put her into cop mode...

"Judy? Judy… Hopps!"

Judy blinked, glancing up to the tiger. "Uh, what?"

"Now's not the time." Dahlia sighed, jerking her heads at Trigger, now involved in some quiet conversation with Nick and James. "I know you want to figure out what happened, and I can assure you, we all do. But for his sake, do wait until we'll be done with today. Let him try to enjoy the rest of the hike while we're out here."

The rabbit gave a sheepish grin, nodding in understanding. "Okay, I can do that."

Speaking of the pilot, Trigger had stopped again as Nick and James leaned on a conveniently placed log nearby. He leaned down and picked up a long fallen leaf from the much larger tree growing on the side of the trail. Sniffing at it, he even closed his eyes as he enjoyed the scent coming from it. "Now that's a small you don't get in Ocelotia," he commented, reaching down to grab several more leaves and stuff them into his backpack.

Looking over the tree, Judy couldn't help but show off her botanical upbringing. It was at times like this that Nick would joke how 'you can take the bunny out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the bunny'. Tapping a knuckle against the trunk of the tree, she flashed a grin to Trigger, though a rather ironic one. "You shouldn't be smelling these leaves here either," she told him, "this tree isn't native to the area."

Trigger tilted his head to look up to the top of the tree. "Uh, it isn't? Then what is it doing here?"

Nick nudged James as Dahlia took a spot next to them. "My suggestion, we get the heck out of here. Carrot's going full farmer on us. You _never_ let her go full farmer." Wolford instead crossed his arms and stayed put, choosing instead to watch the spectacle.

"This is a _Eucalyptus globulus_ tree," Judy was explaining, groaning in frustration as Trigger stared blankly back at her.

He grabbed another leaf and sniffed at it again. "But they grow all over the area," he commented, confusion clear in his voice. "Are you really saying that they are…. An invasive species?"

Judy rolled her eyes. "Yes, Trigger, that's what I'm saying. If you failed to catch the name, once again, this tree is _Eucalyptus globulus_. Eucalyptus! Pawstralian? Their natural habitat is Pawstralia, not Zootopia. They don't belong here."

Trigger's ears lowered at this news. "But I always liked these trees here," he mumbled half-heatedly, getting him another eye roll from the rabbit. Nick on the other hand failed to hide a snicker of amusement.

"You dumbass," Judy said in jest, only later realizing what she had said. She hadn't meant to use the other nickname he had from his airbase, it sort of just slipped out. Not that he seemed to notice. Or if he did, he didn't care enough to react to it.

Rather, his ears suddenly perked up as he motioned for the resting officers to get back on their feet. "Hey, forget the tree, I just remembered: We should be really close to the final intersection!" he blurted out. "If I recall correctly, we are only a couple of minutes from Tourist Rock!" And just like that, he was off again, taking the lead and calling for the others not to fall behind.

"This is going to get old fast," James complained as his sore legs complained at having to work again, "But if he's talking about what I think he's talking about, then we're not that far from the parking lot either. Wait, what did he mean by 'tourist rock'?" He only walked for a bit longer before a random memory caused his eyes to widen as he hurried his pace to try and catch up to the pilot. "Uh, Trigger, wait! There's something you should know about that!"

But Trigger wasn't having any of it, still rushing off in order to get over to his 'tourist rock'. His prediction that they were close had a point when the trail finally turned inland for more than just to get through one of the various gullies along the cliffs. Heading into a wooded valley, it finally appeared to be that it was time to leave the coast behind. Not that this was what Trigger was interested in. Instead, he stopped at a sign post by a intersection between the trail and another small path leading back towards the coast. Whatever he was reading, it wasn't good news based on the flattening of his ears again.

James finally caught up, but knew that he was too late to inform Trigger on what he had remembered. "That's what I wanted to tell you," he said as he placed a paw on Trigger's shoulder reassuringly. "The outcrop collapsed years ago. It was natural erosion, nothing anyone could have done about it."

"It was still up last time I was here," Trigger grumbled as he stared at the sign informing of the permanent trail closure. He placed a finger on the sign, tracing the words slowly. "It didn't even last that long after we left… Collapsed only about a year after we left. I thought it was unusual that I wasn't able to see any mammals taking pictures on it, but… I mean… Everything else all looks exactly the same as I remember. Why did this have to change? It's like… like the very ground is now taunting me how nothing's the same anymore! Ever since the fucking war started…"

James pulled the pilot away from the sign before Trigger would loose his cool even more. "Come on, let's keep going." He could only guess as to why such a change was causing such a sever reaction from Trigger, but as he thought about it, he figured that,were he in Trigger's place, that he would too be rather depressed to find out that such a significant change happened when he was away. "We're almost home. Try not to think about all of this too much."

Trigger nodded feebly and allowed himself to be turned towards their way home. "Okay, okay. Let's… let's get this over with. Yeah, there isn't a lot left…" He took the lead again as James allowed him to pass.

The group entered the trees, the canopy covering so much of the bright sky that Judy was the only one not to have to stop walking and blink while adjusting their vision to the new lighting. Even despite his gloomy attitude just moments ago, even Trigger had something to say about it.

"It must be something to do with the coast and all the light bouncing around all over the place," he told them, pulling the brim of his hat up to let more light in to little effect. "But I've never seen such a sudden transition anywhere else. Not in Ocelotia, but not even in other places around here. But it's not rock walls like a cave or a tunnel, it's just trees blocking all the light!"

Judy, who ironically with her worse eyesight, wasn't as effected by the sudden darkening as the others were, so she got to appreciate the transition a bit more than they did. Plus, she did ninja in a picture of Nick fumbling with his sunglasses, but she wasn't sure if her phone had a good enough camera for this or not. Unfortunately, she will need to wait to get back to Zootopia to see if that particular shot came out well, as she had to hide her phone back when she noticed that her partner wasn't looking around blindly anymore and was very much aware of his surroundings again.

And then they were off again, for the uncounted number of times today, heading down a narrow path inland that hugged the side of a valley, a small creek in a shallow gorge on the other side. The narrow path meant that they were forced to go in single file, but it didn't take long for this path to merge into a significantly wider dirt road. And with this increase in path width came an increase in traffic. Collapsed scenic rock or not, but this latest road, which based on the trail signs was also going to be their last one, was also the most populated segment from today, short only of the actual beach.

For Judy, it meant that she again got to experience the stares of others, being the only bunny among a group of large predators. But those stares, she found them to be rather easy to ignore, especially since she had her phone out and was busy taking pictures of the interesting sights around them.

It wasn't like Nick didn't get a good laugh at her expense when she had to _wait in line_ after a bunch of other rabbits so that she can get a nice close-up shot of a small waterfall created by a creek that came down the valley side, through a pipe beneath the road, and into the main creek on the other side. But honestly, the fact that he simply walked next to her the most part without bantering was something she didn't mind, instead allowing her to listen in as Trigger started up another conversation with James and Dahlia. This time they were chatting on about movies, and while the beginning was very much forced and was a blatant attempt to hide away from whatever had been bothering him, with the two cops humoring him, the conversation soon enough became very much natural lighthearted banter. Even she and Nick joined in. Clawhauser especially can tell anyone about Judy's being prone to gossip for hours on end, but with her taking pictures and whatnot, she was left out simply because she kept leaving the group to hop to the side of the road for a quick snap, Nick in tow accompanying her.

It was a real shame too, because as soon as Trigger mentioned that he was a big fan of the animated _L__eo King_ movie, it only took a moment for him to also reveal that he never did see the live action remake – it had come out after the war had started and he never had the opportunity to visit a theater when it was playing. But this was a movie that Judy can spend literal days talking about, especially now that she found another fan. But alas, as it were, she got distracted by an interesting fallen log over the creek, which left James to pick up the conversation.

"-and speaking of creepy shamans in the woods, take a look at that bridge over there," he said, motioning to a small wooden bridge from where anther small trail broke away from the road. If his voice was anything to go by, James knew exactly what they were supposed to find there.

Nick came over to the bridge, and more specifically, to the trail sign right next to it. Leaning closer to examine it, he took a quick read of its contents. "Oh gosh!" Jumping back in surprise, he clutched at his chest in order to calm his racing heart.

Startled by the sudden reaction from her partner, Judy bolted over, eyes wide with concern. "Nick? What is it?" Nick recovered only to lean casually on the sign, a large dopey smirk on his muzzle that caused Judy to slow down in confusion. She knew that look. That look that could only mean-

"The distance remaining starts with a zero followed by a dot," Nick explained, motioning at the sign. "As in, we have less than a mile left! And here I though that we were on some sort of endless walk here." He gave Trigger a curious look. "Wouldn't put it past Chief Buffalo Butt to get Strikes here to make us go on some death march." He smirked again. "Tell me, Strikes, just want to check, you wouldn't be packing a piece on your persons, would you? Put us out of our misery at the very end perhaps?"

Trigger by now knew Nick well enough to know that he was joking. And he was in a good enough mood again to actually play along. Returning the smirk, he patted the straps to his backpack. "Now if I did, why would I tell you?" he asked in response. "Consider it a surprise."

"If you tell me, I'll still act surprised," Nick offered, now moving away from the sign. If they were really as close as it said they were, then there should really only be a matter of a couple of more turns on the road they were on.

Trigger shrugged. "Why should I spoil the surprise? It's to die for!"

For all their silly banter, Judy had to admit that she felt a pang of sadness at the fact that they were so close to the end. She had somehow fallen closer to the back of the group, and her eyes couldn't help but linger up towards the bandage around Trigger's neck, only partially obstructed by his shirt. Only very recently, he was in a very bad mood, and only had returned to normal a matter of minutes ago. While she was very much glad that the day was over, to get off her sore legs, and was looking towards finally being able to relax, she also was wishing that they had perhaps a bit more time today. And yet, their little vacation was about to end simply because they were running out of road to go on.

No, correction. As their little group rounded a final bend in the road, the forest opened up to the grassy fields that they had driven into, and sure enough, there was the parking lot in front of them, cars glinting in the late day sun.

"Now that's such a beautiful sight if I ever saw one," Nick announced, imitating wiping a tear off his eye. "I think I can see our car from here!"

"Last one to it pays for dinner?" James offered, tightening the straps to his own backpack.

Trigger shook his head. "Nah, we still have that entire straight to get past. Too far to race on," he explained. If he was also disappointed that their hike was coming to an end like Judy was, he wasn't sounding like it. "However, I didn't yet get to tell you my favorite line in the movie. I think it really works for this case."

Judy's ears perked up again. "Yeah, which line is that?" She racked her brain for the ending of the movie, wondering what bit of dialogue he could be referring to.

"You know, it was before the ghost scene. The one with the shaman goes all..." Trigger said, sporting a sly grin similar to what Nick would do. "Bye!" In a flash, he was off, running as fast as he could down the dusty road towards the cars.

"Hey, wait!" Caught off guard, Judy more so felt the wind of him darting off rather than actually see his bolting away. Quickly zeroing in on his retreating form, her mind decided right there and then to latch onto one simple conclusion: Trigger was making a break for it. "_Stop_!" Tearing off after him, she sprinted after the pilot, legs straining to catch up. "Stop right now!"

Dahlia grumbled at the scene, both since Judy's cries also drew the attention of nearby park attendees. She really didn't expect Judy to overreact as she did. After all, Dahlia had to give it to Trigger that it was actually a rather funny joke to pull off like that, fitting really well with the fact that they had been talking about that movie just now. But since an overachieving bunny didn't get the joke, she needed to be ready to step in, just in case. "Someone needs to stop her from tearing his limbs off when she catches up," she commented to Nick and James, starting a slow jog after Trigger and Judy, speeding up ever so slowly as to not fall behind too far. She didn't feel like sprinting after the two, but it would still be better to be safe than sorry.

And speaking of being not worried, two certain cops did not choose to partake in the chase. "I've got a large clunky and fragile camera I need to keep safe," James muttered, glaring at how fast Judy was going. That bunny was making him look bad. And lazy, which okay, he really was right now. "That, and I can still claim to be sick, I think. Or something. Either way, I suspect that you are also using that as an excuse, Wilde. Or is it not a good enough reason and we have to go after them too?" He glanced at Nick, sharing a look and a grin as they both reached the same conclusion:

"Nah!" They'll get to the others without needed to run after them.

In the lead, Trigger was getting close to the fence line of the parking lot, and looked behind him to see where the others were. His eyes widened in genuine fear at the raging bunny chasing after him, glaring pure venom and still shouting at him to stop. That fear gave him the extra burst of speed that he needed to get through the gate before her, but while he slowed down to a stop once past it, she didn't.

Using her momentum, Judy took a running leap and bounced high up, aiming right for his head. What she had meant to do was to grab onto him so that she can be right up muzzle to muzzle with him in order to explain to him exactly why he can't just go running off like that. That was the plan, at any rate. Instead, he tried to evade her, leaning out of the way as she sailed past him, but not before she was able to grab his shirt collar. Landing on her feet, she heard his muffled yelp of pain as he was brought down to the dusty ground in a muddled heap.

Ears dropping in fright, she lifted his sputtering head up off the ground, checking to make sure that she didn't hurt him too much. His confused and frightened eyes stared back at her worried, but also still very much angry, glare. Otherwise, though, he looked fine. Her ears stood back up as her anger grew greater than her worries over his state. "You can't just run away from us like that!" Judy hissed, noticing that their little scuffle was drawing attention from the mammals already at the parking lot. She forced herself to ignore them. Let rubberneckers rubberneck. "What happened to us needing to keep a close eye on you?"

"Y-you thought I war running away?" Trigger mumbled in confusion, groaning as he crawled back up to his legs, leaning over to rest on his knees. "But I wasn't running away!"

Judy frowned, tapping her foot against the ground in agitation. "Yeah? Then what was that just nowt?" She glanced up when Fangmeyer came jogging over, stopping next to the two with an amused grin.

"It was just to this gate!" Trigger angrily responded, pointing at the gate he had sprinted through while trying to escape Judy's wrath. "A finish line! It was supposed to be a fun way to end the day! I- I didn't expect you to think that I was… running away? _Here_? There's nowhere to go!" He pawed at his clothing, trying to brush of as much dust as he could. "Seriously?"

Her more rational mind finally catching up to her, Judy started to feel a deep sense of embarrassment get to her. "That… might have been what I was thinking," she admitted sheepishly. "I'm sorry! I saw you bolt off and I thought you were trying to lose us! I don't even know why, but that's what I thought you were doing!"

Trigger frowned at her, changing into a pained wince as he rubbed at his neck. Quickly hiding the bandage underneath his shirt collar, he opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by an amused voice next to them.

"Hey, wolf, you all right there? That bunny knocked you down real good there." An antelope from within a small group of them was smirking at him, looking like he enjoyed Trigger's fall far more than showing any concern for his well being. His speech was oddly slurred. "What's with the bandage around your neck? Also caused by the bunny? You really need to shape up! Come here, I can teach you a lesson!"

"I'm fine! Leave us alone!" Trigger growled, glaring at the group, then shoving Judy and Dahlia away. "And I'm not a- Never mind, forget it! Let's go back to our car."

"Not a wolf? My bad, thought you were some kind of runt or something, but thanks for correcting me!" The antelope's words went unnoticed by the retreating Trigger, but that didn't stop him. "Word of advice, jackal, runt or not, but best not to let even smaller rabbits beat you up! Someone might start thinking that you're some wimp!"

Fangmeyer let out a low growl at the words. "Want me to go and have a word with them?" she asked, glancing at Trigger to make sure that he himself wasn't about to change his mind and return into a confrontation. She didn't want to deal with a fight now, even if they deserved it. Plus, if they got into a fight, Trigger would have to deal with Bogo's wrath over it, despite very clearly not being in the wrong here. Luckily, he was maintain control of himself enough to still walk away with her and Judy.

"No, it's all right. Let them be harmless morons," Trigger muttered hastily, holding on Judy's shoulder and pulling her away before she can rush in on her own terms. "If anything, he sounds drunk. Judy, you especially, don't get involved. Just let it go."

"Being drunk is no excuse for what he's saying!" Judy was especially furious, to the point that she almost tore herself away from his grip in order to stomp back to said morons and give them her piece of mind. This was the exact sort of behavior that she had to see Nick deal with when they were out of uniform. But like Trigger was now, Nick would too insist that she just let it slide and ignore it! Well how about, for once, either one of them allow her to do something about it?

But spotting her partner waiting by the car with James, Judy knew that this battle was not one to be fought today. Letting her own 'growl' of frustration at the behavior of those tourists, she followed everyone else back to their car.

Nick was sporting an extremely wide, cheese-eating grin as he waited for them. "You really gave him quite the face-plant there, Carrots," he said, jerking his head in Trigger's direction. "Doing good there, Strikes?"

While Trigger just gave him a funny look, Judy, still peeved at the rude tourists, lifted a finger. "Not a word, Nick! I-" she froze when her pocket, or more specifically, the phone inside, started to beep angrily at her. Pulling it out, she stared in horror at all the messages and missed calls, all from her family. "Oh no…" She was about to write a quick text back, but stopped almost just as quickly. This was going to be easier just to call and talk to them. Not listening to Nick's jab at her helicoptering parents, she jammed the device to her ear as the ringing was very quickly followed by the voice of her mother picking up the phone on the other end. "Hi! Mom! Just wanted to call you to let you know-" Her ears dropped as she was interrupted again by the sound of Stu complaining loudly from the other end.

She moved the phone right up to her mouth where the microphone will pick up her voice the best. "Dad! I didn't have any signal! That's why I couldn't answer the phone! Couldn't you have just waited instead of _trying every five minutes_? Yes! Mom, dad- Yes, everything is fine, seriously!" Preoccupied as she was with her family and the phone, she only really noticed that she was now inside the car, alone with Nick, when she finally killed the call and returned the device to her pocket with an annoyed huff. "They need to worry less, seriously," she grumbled, looking around the interior of the car. "Where did everyone else go?"

Nick let out a long, loud yawn as he stretched himself out completely across the back seats, enjoying that his smaller size allowed him to extend to his full length. "They'll be back," jerking a thumb in the direction of a small restroom building next to the parking lot. Lifting his muzzle up to look over to Judy, he flashed another one of his grins. "So, how was the family? How many times did they try to call you when we were out of civilization?"

"Oh uh, too many times," Judy answered, letting out an embarrassed laugh. With Nick's head right there next to her, she smirked at reached out, running her paws through his fur. His reaction to her touch was instant, his eyes closing and mouth slacking into a relaxed smile. "And how's that for a head massage?" she teased, remembering how he complained about it.

"Hmm… Don't stop…" Nick mumbled dreamily, scooting his head closer to her. "Just what the doctor ordered…"

Still smirking, she freed one of her paws to allow it to grab her phone and take a picture of Nick's face. There was no way that she was going to let him get this treatment for free, and Clawhauser, for one, will especially appreciate the image of raw cuteness that her fox was giving right now. "Speaking of doctors, how are you feeling?"

Nick opened an eye up, noticing the phone, and even winking at it. "Just amputate my legs and replace them with prosthetics," he said. "I heard they make great robotic ones these days. Even better than the real deal that we're all born with."

"Nick!" Judy flicked one of his ears. "Don't be like that! You're legs will be fine. All it means is that you need to get outside more. But otherwise, did you at least enjoy today? Because it sure sounded all day today like you did, so you can't exactly deny it!"

"First of all, I can," he answered completely matter-of-factually. "And second of all… I will admit it, but only under the condition that you don't stop."

It took Judy half a moment to realize what he was talking about. "What? Oh, you sly fox. All right, you hustled me well there." She fell into silence as she put her phone away, freeing up both of her paws to rub his head fur again. "But seriously, you know what I mean when I asked you about how you're feeling. We did come here for a specific reason, after all. And don't think that I didn't notice you wincing in pain when we arrived either."

"It takes more than some weaponized flowered to take this fox down, Fluff," Nick reassured her, eyes closing in satisfaction as he settled into her renewed scratching. "We'll see tomorrow how I'll be exactly, but my prediction is that, short of sore muscles, I'll be good as new." A short pause, then he added, "and speaking of which, I am flat out refusing to get up early tomorrow. We have our first day of the weekend, and I am planning to sleep in. No arguing against it."

"Don't worry, after today, you earned that at the very least," Judy replied with a grin. "Don't think I'll be planning on being too mobile myself, but I can't help but feel bad for James and Dahlia. They have to work tomorrow…" Nick hummed in agreement, but otherwise fell quiet, letting her scratch his ears. Losing herself in the motion, Judy let her mind wonder, thinking about the day, and now that it was done, really start to process it all. She couldn't help but smile at the memories of some of their antics. It must have been only a few short hours ago at the most, heck, they hadn't even left the parking lot yet. But with the change in mood from then to now, it was already starting to feel like a long time ago. Her smile faded slightly as she recalled the reason for that difference. "Hey, Nick..?"

"Yeah, Carrots?"

"Um, right after Trigger's collar went off, and I tried to help… He really got angry at me. Enough to try and punch me, which you saw. But when you come along, and made that- that really stupid pun, he started laughing!"

"Carrots, you asked him if he was okay," Nick answered rather bluntly. "His collar went off hard enough to drop him to the floor, and you asked him if he was okay. Why do you think he tried to punch you?"

"But how did you know that your pun was the right thing to say? I almost was about to punch you myself when you said it! And it wasn't just that cheeky comment of yours either, you stopped me from talking to him even before that. It was like you knew!"

Nick grinned. "It's called a hustle, sweetheart."

She stopped scratching at his fur, frowning. "Nick…" She pulled her paws back to herself. If he was going to hold his ground, then she was going to go back to her own as well.

Which, in a weird way, made it a rather funny thing when Nick started _whining_ when she stopped with the scratches. His eyes snapped open at the noise coming from his own mouth, at which she smirked and held up her paws. "You want scratching, you talk!"

"Carrots, are you seriously trying to bribe an officer of the law?"

Oh no, he wasn't going to get away that easily. "It's hardly bribery when your felony is impeding with an official investigation," she responded, enjoying his reaction of disappointment. Then just to rub it in even further she added, "It's called a hustle, sweetheart!"

"Sly bunny," Nick grumbled with a gruff. "Okay, I'll talk. But come on!" he wiggled his ears. "Your fox needs his pampering! I'm sick, remember? Nighthowler poisoning and all of that?"

"Getting head massages was hardly part of your getting better plan, you dumb fox," Judy said, but did as he requested and resumed with the scratching. "Now talk."

"Okay, to get back to it, I didn't actually know how he would react to such a joke," Nick admitted. "I just figured, that whatever he was thinking about, it wasn't doing him any good. So it was purely a distraction tactic. Throw him completely off with a terrible pun and go from there. Good thing for me that my hunch was correct." He opened his eyes again to look up at her. "Guess you can mark it down to twenty years of reading mammals' emotions to separate them from their money," he said, giving an answer that was oddly honest for him. "Those skills don't always go towards making a profit."

"And what about now?" Judy asked. "I don't want to just drop it and forget about it, Nick. That was a very bad hit he took, and it's always possible that it can happen again. Bogo will need to know about it, for one. And we don't have a lot of time left, Nick. I can't help but feel worried for him…"

Inside the small restroom, James emerged from his stall to find Trigger behind the counter, standing on a small mammal step to get a better view from the mirrors hanging along the wall. His expression was darkened as he carefully inspected the burned fur on his neck, torn bandage tossed carelessly on the sink to the side.

"Want to talk about it?" James offered, starting to wash his paws.

"Not really," Trigger answered, voice strained.

James sighed. "I can understand you not wanting to, pup. But it doesn't take a genius to see that something's eating at you. If you're worried about someone listening in, it's just us in here, and there's only one way in or out. So if-"

"It's not that I'm worried about that," Trigger interrupted gruffly. "It's not… that."

The officer tilted his head in confusion. "Is it about what those idiots outside said? As a cop, I can still do something about it."

"No!"

James couldn't help but smile a little at how adamant Trigger was being at leaving them alone.

"I mean-" Trigger paused, gathering his thoughts, "They're idiots, yes. But I don't care about them." He glanced nervously side to side, as though to confirm that they really were alone. "I'm _Three Strikes_!" he hissed at James. Then returning his voice to a more normal level, he added, "why should I care about what some drunk moron is saying? He thinks that Judy beat me up? So what? I don't need to prove anything to him."

"Then what-?" James began.

"Nick, did you hear what that antelope said?" Back in the car, Judy absentmindedly stopped scratching at Nick's head fur.

"Sure, I heard it," Nick's voice was only slightly tinged with the sound of anger, but it was there nevertheless. "Don't worry, jerk's gonna get what's coming for him. Don't know how or when, but karma tends to work that way."

"Trigger didn't let me step in for him, though," Judy rumbled. "Nor Dahlia. Together, the two of us could have handled the whole group if we needed to. But he just dragged us away. And it just… This is the exact sort of behavior I see happen to you when we're out of uniform!"

Nick looked up at her, smirking. "Never let them see that they get to you. Remember that, Fluff?" he teased. "And you never got called down on for being a dumb bunny? There's nothing illegal about being stupid, or talking like one. Don't blame Strikes for not wanting to waste energy arguing with those jerks, it's not like we'll ever see them again."

"Well, we better not," Judy agreed before switching topics. "Nick, about Trigger? I'm really worried about him. I was thinking, after we took his collar off because of… that shock. I was thinking, at the risk of sounding specieist… Can you talk to him? Since you're a fox, I was thinking that perhaps-"

"Carrots…."

"Nick, _please_! He needs help! And I know he trusts us, but whenever I tried to talk to him, he always changes the subject. Or like today, where he doesn't explain enough. James was never successful either in getting him to talk either."

"Fluff…" 

"You need to talk to him, Nick. Please, do it for me." 

"Judy!" Nigh sighed, finally grabbing her attention. "I never said that I won't."

She blinked back at him. "You… Right." Her ears fell back as she grinned at her partner, feeling very sheepish. "But you will talk to him then?"

"I will. Don't expect results though," he warned. "It won't be my first time trying to find out anything useful. He knows that we want to learn more, but whatever is bothering him, while bad, as we unfortunately saw today, he won't talk about it."

"Nick…" Judy watched him nervously. "You remember early in the war? How the news was saying that the Ocelotians bombed Urusian civilian buildings? You don't think… Could he have done it?"

Nick shook his head. "He might have been there. But you saw him yelling today. If anything, it sounds like he wasn't the one to do it, but was still landed with the blame. Maybe, since we're just speculating. Doesn't explain all the secrecy either from him nor about him. I can try asking him about it, but I don't think we'll find out. But, as much as I hate to admit it, it's a very real possibility."

"Here, take a seat," James patted the counter top next to Trigger, inviting the pilot to jump up. After a moment's hesitation, Trigger did as asked. Closer to each other's level, James inspected the neck wound. "Might leave a mark, unfortunately," he admitted, "but once the fur grows back in, it might be invisible. So fingers crossed…" He tried to smile at the pilot, but it faded when he was returned with a tired, world-weary gaze.

"I…" Trigger's eyes traveled towards the ground, matched by his ears. "I don't want this to be my last time here," he admitted. He felt James place his paws on his shoulders, but didn't look up. "Especially the first part, all the way until after we got off the beach? It was wonderful today. It was fun. Not the same as a decade ago, but it was still so… fun. And… It was like a dream. One of those wonderful dreams that you don't want to wake up from. But then that collar went off…" Shuddering at the memory, he finally looked up when James gripped his shoulders harder. "I didn't want to wake up from that dream. Because…" he sighed heavily. "I mean, there's no point in pretending otherwise, you all saw me. But to make it explicit, then yes, my life is rather terrible at the moment. But coming here, for several hours, I was able to forget about it all… But not for long enough. And now I will likely have a scar around my neck documenting the moment that dream ended, and I don't think I'll live long enough to be able to redo it."

James cursed underneath his breath. He knew that this talk was going to be unpleasant, but the conversation just took a much darker turn than even he had expected. "Trigger, if you're worried for your life, you don't have to go back to the war," he said sternly. "We can protect you here. Neutral country, remember? Wait the war out, then when it's safe again, you can come back here, or go home. The choice will be yours, and most importantly, you won't have to be afraid."

"...Home..." Trigger's blank stare into the distance was really starting to worry James.

"Trigger-"

"That's not my name!" the pilot snapped, regaining focus. "Don't call me-" his voice faded, his entire demeanor visibly shrinking with shame and fright. Without saying anything himself, James reached over and pulled the trembling pilot into a tight hug.

"Speaking about all of that secrecy, Carrots, there's something I overheard recently walking past chief's office," Nick said, head still pressed up against his partner. "Which is, if I heard correctly, and I'm sure I have, then he already knows Strike's real name."

Judy paused, glancing down with eyes full of surprise. How in the world did no one else know about this already? "Wait, Bogo knows Trigger's real name?" she repeated in disbelief. "Why did he not tell us then?"

"Beats me," Nick admitted, "From what I heard, he was complaining to Agent Stripes that even with the name, there was no information trail to follow. Didn't hear anything else after that. Which, by the way, nearly got a week of parking duty just asking Buffalo Butt about it, too,"

"But why would Bogo not tell us?" Judy asked, more so to herself. "He's our chief!" She decided then and there that this was something she needed to talk to Bogo about. Even if it was going to get her in trouble.

James separated himself from Trigger, patting the pilot in the shoulder for good measure. "You're really touch starved, aren't you?" he teased.

Trigger stared back, managing to return a hint of a grin. "I-yeah, I guess you can say that. Just don't tell Count." He glanced down sideways when James squeezed his shoulder for good measure.

"I was being serious you know," the officer said, "about you not needing to go back. If you stay, you'll be safe here."

"But I have to," Trigger said firmly. "Being stuck here is one thing. Okay, I get it, the lawyers need to figure out the legality and all that, so I can't complain about being placed in more permanent custody, or whatever else you do to POWs. But now that I will have a choice... I have to go. I can't remain hiding here while others are dying. I can make a difference, so it doesn't matter how I feel about it. Especially now that I know just how much Urusia wants to get rid of me, okay, I'll admit it. I'm scared. But it doesn't make it right for me to hide out because of fear. I have a duty to fly, and compared to infantry running around with rifles? No one's asking them if they want to leave or not. So if nothing else, it's not fair for them for me to run away. Not now." His voice faded off as James squeezed his shoulder again. "Look, I just…" He slid off the counter top, brushing his shirt off. "I don't want to talk about it. Can we go back to the car?"

"Yeah, sure." He lead Trigger to the door, opening it up for the pilot and following him out, nearly bumping into Dahlia, who was patiently waiting for them outside.

"You boys sure took your time," she said with a smirk, mostly aimed at her partner. Lowering her voice to speak only to him, she then asked, "how is he? He looks rather blue again."

"It's complicated. I'll tell you later," James answered quietly, looking nervously at the back of Trigger's head, hoping that the pilot wasn't able to hear them.

"That's fine, we really need to give him a break about it all for today anyways. And what about you, James?"

He did a double take when he noticed that she was smirking again at him. "What?"

"And what about you, ya big goof," Dahlia asked, her voice normal again. "Or am I not allowed to ask on the status of my job partner?"

Jame's ears folded downwards in embarrassment. "I'm fine!" he insisted, feeling silly that her question completely flew over his head. "Don't worry, Doctor Honey was correct, today was good for me. I suspect Nick as well."

They followed Trigger back to the car, which Dahlia took the time to fish out the keys again. "James, I just sent Mike a text," she told him, referring to her husband. "If you won't mind driving, it's not a large detour if you drop me off near our apartment. I'll be very grateful if I won't need to waste time driving to and from the station."

"Oh, yeah, that won't be a problem, don't worry about it," he answered, grabbing the keys and slipping into the driver's seat. Turning around in the seat, he couldn't stop himself from grinning at Nick and Judy. The pair were sharing a set of earbuds and sitting rather close to each other. "I'll be dropping Fangmeyer off by her place. You two good to head down to the station after that, or do you also want a different drop off point?"

"You mean you're offering not to force me to walk home after this death march?" Nick grinned as he pressed his paws together in mock prayer. "My prayers have been answered! Yeah, if you haven't guessed, you can drop me off close to my place too."

Judy took a few moments to think about if she needed to grab anything from the station. Not having to ride a bus home was sounding really good right now too. "Nick, want to make it a movie night?" she asked. "In which case, I can be dropped off with you." In reply, he simply shrugged and reached out for the phone, plugging in the next destination into it.

Taking the phone back, James glanced over at Trigger. The pilot was already had the seatbelt strapped in, and was leaning against his door, muzzle pressed against the cool glass. The borrowed phone and earbuds inside his own ears blocking out the outside world. All in all, he looked close to falling asleep, despite only being in the car for a minute at most by this point. Not, James thought, that he hadn't looked like he needed a good rest ever since his collar went off. So with a shrug, he turned back and started up the engine, quietly shifting into gear and slowly driving out of the dusty parking lot, following his phone's directions to guide him back to Zootopia.

Remembering how he himself had basically slept through the entire drive in, James was glad that he was now able to enjoy the scenery as he drove back. Letting the radio play music at a low volume, he occasionally talked with Dahlia about random things. Ironically enough, they chatted about their walk quite a bit, sharing some quick stories that they might have missed despite all of them being there only hours ago. But also, as they drove, he also did notice that the back of the car was oddly silent. With the small winding road not offering an opportunity to look at the back seats, he let Fangmeyer be his eyes for this one. "Hey, Dahlia, how's everyone in the back doing?" he asked randomly.

She looked behind, letting out a quiet _aww_. "Trigger's passed out, not that I can blame him," she informed, "as for Nick and Judy? Uhh, Clawhauser's gotta get a picture!"

James grumbled as she fished around for her phone. "Come on, Dahlia! I can't look behind me. What are they doing?" Though based on the lack of any complaining from Judy or some snarky come back from Nick, he could already guess what they were doing.

Snapping pictures, Dahlia tried to explain the scene at the back. "They're also asleep. Nick… he has Judy in a hug, tail wrapped around her and all. His head is using hers like a pillow. And Judy? Well, Nick can sure make a soft and cuddly bucket seat. They really do look cute together. I would say take a look yourself, but relax, I'll send you the picture too. It'll be so fun to tease them with it!"

"Okay, okay, I'll take your word for it." Letting out a sigh of disappointment at not being able to also enjoy the view, allowed himself to relax a bit further into his own seat and enjoy the ride back. Not like it was only a matter of time before he would enter the usual traffic and bustle of the city, so this country road was making a very nice change of pace compared to the normal he was used to.

With the sun well into setting, the forest around them steadily grew darker until the car decided that it was time to turn on the headlights. Soon, the scenery around them also started to start being lit up as the forest stated to give way to buildings and other signs of civilization. Before he wanted to, it was time to get off the small roads and onto the much larger and more populated intestate. Then, after some time driving on a that, a quick hop over one of the many bridges, and they were back in the familiar view of the concrete jungle that was Zootopia. Now paying attention to the phone's directions more closely, he finally reached his first destination.

"See you later, James," Dahlia said as she gout out, giving her partner a quick, one armed hug. "Predicting a normal patrol tomorrow?" She looked at the back seat, but chose to let everyone in the back remain in peace.

"Yeah, tomorrow, back to the grind," James confirmed with a playfully grim tone. "Have fun with dinner!" Pulling away from the sidewalk, it was off to the next destination. By the time they arrived, the two smaller officers were already awake again.

As they were exiting the car, Judy was about wake Trigger up to say goodbye to Trigger, but Nick stopped her. "You'll see him soon enough," he told her, pulling away and waving James that they were clear and he was good to leave. ""Let the poor guy sleep if he wants to!"

She stretched her surprisingly stiff legs. "That's oddly caring of you, Nick. Is it because of how I need to get you up every morning?" When he refused to answer, she went to the next item down her list. "So, dinner first and then movie?" It was really late, but they can afford to stay up now, since tomorrow was a normal day off for them.

"Why not both?" Nick offered. "I know a great takeout place. Let's grab some of that, then figure out what's worth seeing on Pawflix."

"Sure, Nick, that sounds great!" Letting him take the lead, she followed her fox.

At the ZPD precinct one building, the white unmarked cruiser puled into the underground lot. Killing the engine, James stretched for a brief moment. As good as the walk was, it was great to be home again. Well, not quite for him, but this was the final destination for the still sleeping occupant in the back. Gently nudging Trigger awake, James only ceased when the pilot snorted awake. "We're back. Feeling all good?"

Trigger blinked, rubbing his eyes awake. "I, yeah, just give me a moment…" Letting out a long yawn, he puled the earbuds out. Fumbling with the device for a bit, he placed it into his backpack before handing the entire thing over to James. "Thanks for letting me used these," he mumbled, opening the door and sliding out. "I uh, see you tomorrow, right?"

James also exited the vehicle, walking around it and placing a paw on Trigger's shoulder. "Yeah, see you tomorrow, pup. Take care of yourself, okay?"

Trigger smiled back. "Can't make any promises, but I'll try. But about today? Thank you… I really mean it, it was great. Okay… See you tomorrow." Turning into the door leading into the station, he hobbled inside.

The door slowly closed, and finally shutting, blocked him away from sight.


End file.
